Italian Documents FAQs

Each order is for one town only; in the event the Italian Town Hall you listed in your original order, notifies us that the records are maintained in a different archive (i.e.in a different town) or you come up with a different town of birth, we will ask you to kindly place a new order. 

In the event the Italian Town Hall notifies us that the record or records could not be found, we don't offer refunds. Please remember: all family documents in Italy are ONLY maintained in the EXACT town. You may want to perform some additional research here in the U.S. to identify the missing information. Visit our Research US Sources Section for more. Once you locate additional information, you can place a new order online on our website.

In order to prevent fraud and to comply with the requirements of the existing privacy laws (Law no. 675/1996 implementing EU Directive 95/46 on Personal Data Protection), more and more town halls require a signed authorization letter by means of which the direct descendant authorizes us to request family documents on his or her behalf, and a copy of the direct descendants’ valid photo ID (passport or driver’s license). These documents will be forwarded to the local town hall together with a copy of our valid photo ID.

We will ONLY process requests to Town Halls (for Birth/Marriage/Death Records, Certificate of Citizenship Records & Certificates Positive/Negative) and to State Archives (for Military Records), but generally not to Parish Churches. If you are interested in researching Church Records, we recommend you authorize one of our Research Projects onsite in Italy. For more information please visit our Research Section.

REMEMBER: Italian Consulates will only accept church records such as baptismal certificates or religious marriage certificates if the civil authorities provide a statement that they have no record of a birth or marriage.  In addition, the local diocese has to certify that the church document is authentic. Contact us for a quote at [email protected]

We generally do not forward written requests to the town halls of Rome and Naples. In order to acquire individual document/s issued in the format required by the Italian Consulate to process Italian Dual Citizenship applications, we have to send one of our researchers onsite in person to submit the request. It may take up to thirty days for these town halls to issue the document/s requested. To receive a quote, please email us at [email protected]

Your can login to your account online on our website for updates: https://www.myitalianfamily.com/user/login.

Alternatively, you can call our Toll Free Number at 1-888-472-0171. We answer live Monday through Friday from 9AM to 6PM EST, Saturday from 10AM to 5PM EST. 

In order to authorize a Family Research Project or to order Italian Records, you need to provide the essential information of our Italy-born Ancestor, specifically:

Full Name(s)

Date of Birth/Marriage/Death

EXACT Town of Birth/Marriage/Death

His/Her Parents'Names (if available)

If you don't have this information, you may want to visit our Research U.S. Records Section where you can get FREE advice on how to acquire the missing information.

REMEMBER: All family documents in Italy are ONLY maintained in the EXACT town where your ancestor was born.  

Shipping within the US by USPS Priority Mail ($15 per order with tracking)

Shipping outside the U.S. by USPS Registered Mail ($30 per order with tracking)

Shipping in the U.S. or outside the U.S. by Express Mail. If you are interested in overnight shipping, please send us an email at [email protected], and we will let you know the additional costs involved.

USPS = United States Postal Service

NOTE: We are not responsible in the event the US Portal Service, for any reason, does not deliver the mail to the address provided at the time of the order. A tracking number is always provided. 

You can email us at [email protected] listing your Order Number in the subject line. 

Yes, we can! We can obtain birth and/or marriage records of newly recognized Italian Citizens if required for issuance of your EU (European Union) passport or for an application for Italian Dual Citizenship by Marriage. Fill out the form by entering your town of birth here in the US or town of marriage here in the US (if you are ordering your marriage record). On the order form you will find two special fields with the title "For newly recognized Italian citizens ONLY"; please list there the name of the Italian Town where the birth and/or the marriage was recorded as well as the name of the Italian Consulate and the Year you received your Italian Citizenship. 

It is hard to say how long it may take to receive the document requested: usually it's about 6 to 8 weeks or more (*). Italian public sources will be solicited after 5 weeks, first by fax or email and then by telephone. Ultimately, you will either receive the record(s) requested or a notification of No Record Found.

(*) Please note: With the new Law No. 113/2018 (which modifies the legislative framework set by the Law No. 91/1992), the processing time for Italian Town Halls to issue civil vital records (births, marriages, etc.) requested for the purpose of filing for Italian Dual Citizenship is now up to SIX (6) months. 

If you ordered more than one copy, but the Italian Town Hall only sends us one, you can place a new order and we will credit the amount of the additional copy or copies you had originally ordered. 

My Italian Family does NOT guarantee the results of the request that will be sent to the Italian public sources. In acting purely as an intermediary, we still rely on the work of officials who may or may not cooperate. Records may be kept in separate archives, may have changed location, or suffered damages, thus reducing the changes of success. The most common reason for failure is the result of a customer asking us to request an individual document to the wrong town of origin. Please remember: all family documents in Italy are ONLY maintained in the EXACT town where the Ancestor was born. Please note: generally, Italian Town Halls do not perform any research. This is purely an "ordering process"; for this reason you need to provide accurate locations and dates. 

We do not offer refunds. In the event the Italian Town Hall notifies us that the record or records could not be found, you may want to perform some additional research here in the U.S. to make sure the information you provide is correct. For more information, please visit our Research US Sources section.

We strongly suggest you perform a preliminary research here in the US first; remember, once the request is mailed out to the Italian Town hall, the order cannot be changed OR cancelled. 

Each request is for one town only; in the event the Italian Town Hall you listed in your original order notifies us that the records are maintained in a different archive (i.e. in a different town) or you come up with a different town of brith, we will ask you to kindly place a new order. 

Additional copies: if you have ordered more than one copy by the Italian Town Hall only sends us one, you can place a new order and we will credit the amount of the additional copy or copies you had originally ordered. 

My Italian Family is not responsible for any mistakes Italian Town Halls make. If there are mistakes in the vital record(s) issued by the Italian Town Hall, for instance, male vs. female, year of birth, last names of either father or mother, we recommend the vital record(s) to be corrected. In order to do that, we will ask you place a new order so that we can process a new request with the Italian Town Hall. 

Likewise, we rely on the Italian Postal Service to deliver these hard copy documents to our Rome office via First Class Mail; while we make sure the Italian Town Hall issues the documents requested, we are not liable if the Italian Postal Service fails to deliver them. 

We always provide a USPS Tracking Number when your Italian Documents are shipped to the mailing address you provided in your original order. You should contact your local post office asap for more information. In the unfortunate event the US Postal Service lost or damaged your documents, you should place a new order online on our website.