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How to create your Family History Archive (Archivio Storico
della Famiglia)
by Pier Felice
Degli Uberti
All
of you, at least once in your life, might have wondered who was that remote
ancestor from whom you have inherited the color of your eyes, the color of
your hair, your physical traits…. Probably most of you do not have an
answer or if you do you may have come up with the same funny answer that
Bertoldo gave to the King in Bertoldo e Bertoldino by G.B. Croce when he
was asked whom his ascendants and descendants were. He answered: "The
beans, ascending and descending in the boiling water up and down inside the
pot…"
Genealogy
is as old as mankind and its study started to be practiced by ancient
populations as one of the fundamental human rights. It is not by chance
that the Romans chose a descendant of Zeus, Venus and Mars as the founder
of Rome. Besides the genealogical mythology, there is an oral tradition
that keeps alive a culture made of legends and stories that are passed down
from one generation to the other in our families. Each of us can build and
enrich our own Historical Family Archive with memories gathered from our
Italian grandparents or great grandparents whom in turn might have
remembered some facts related to their grandparents; this is a unique
opportunity to collect information on our genetic affinities. All this data
should be organized efficiently and systematically; for instance you could
register your interviews according to a certain prearranged outline based
on the following questionnaire: click here
to download the questionnaire.
In
addition, we might be able to discover so many things related to our family
through old pictures, hoping that someone before us has put on the back the
name of our ancestor and the date the picture was taken, through letters
and postcards forgotten inside old suitcases, trunks, or cupboards. All
these documentary proofs have to be included in our Family History Archive
by creating special files for each of our relatives and ancestors. An
example: click here to download your a sample of a family
file.
Once
we have collected all the information gathered among the members of our
family, we might have been lucky and collected enough data to start
researching local record sources in Italy that will enable us to trace our
family tree back to the 1500s.
In
Italy, there are parish archives, bishop's archives and state archives that
are repositories of precious records to conduct our research...(to be
continued soon)
Copyright
Information from Dr. Pier Felice degli Uberti
ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of Dr. Pier Felice degli Uberti and my Italian
Family Srl.
Learn about the author:
Dr.
Pier Felice degli Uberti born in Casale Monferrato in 1955 is the founder
together with his wife Dr. Maria Loredana Pinotti of the SCHOOL OF GENEALOGY, HERALDRY, AND DOCUMENTARY
SCIENCES linked to the Escuela de Genealogía Heráldica y
Nobiliaria of the Instituto Salazar y Castro of Madrid and credited to The
Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies of Canterbury. The school
was founded December 3rd 1995 and is located in Bologna (Italy), via C.
Battisti n° 3 - 40123.
The aim of the school is to teach with serious
scientifically intents the main elements of genealogy and family history,
heraldry and documentary sciences and to offer to the students of these
disciplines a place where to learn and confront their knowledge.
In
addition, he is member of the Board of The International Academy of
Genealogy, the Italian representative of the Confédération Internationale
de Généalogie et d'Héraldique, and secretary general of the Istituto
Araldico Genealogico Italiano (Italian Heraldic and Genealogical
Institute); past member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Office
of the Ministry of Beni Culturali ed Ambientali for the 23rd International
Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences. Dr.Pier Felice degli Uberti
is also director of Nobiltà, the only scientific Italian review about
genealogy and heraldry and author of numerous historical, heraldic and
genealogical publications.
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