# Italian-American Family History Starter Kit

Use this checklist to guide your first research session. Record what you know, what you think, and what still needs proof.

## 1. Start with living relatives

- [ ] Interview the oldest living relatives.
- [ ] Record full names, nicknames, pronunciations, and spelling variants.
- [ ] Ask for towns, neighborhoods, parishes, occupations, military service, and migration stories.
- [ ] Note who told you each detail and when.

## 2. Build the U.S. timeline

- [ ] Record approximate birth, marriage, and death dates.
- [ ] Search U.S. census records, vital records, obituaries, church records, and cemetery records.
- [ ] Save the source, page, image, and URL for every useful record.
- [ ] Keep uncertain facts marked as hypotheses.

## 3. Trace the journey

- [ ] Search passenger and border-crossing records.
- [ ] Record the last residence, destination, ship, date, age, and traveling companions.
- [ ] Search spelling variants rather than assuming a record was changed at entry.
- [ ] Compare multiple records before deciding two entries describe the same person.

## 4. Find the Italian comune

- [ ] Identify the exact comune or frazione, not only the province or region.
- [ ] Check Portale Antenati and FamilySearch for digitized records where available.
- [ ] Contact the comune’s civil-record office when a record is not online.
- [ ] Preserve Italian place names and original document spellings.

## Research log

| Date | Person or family | Record searched | Result | Next action |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |

## Keep your evidence organized

Create one folder per person and name files with the date, record type, place, and source. Save a short note explaining why each record belongs in your tree.

This checklist is an educational resource from the Alghini Institute for Italian Americans. It is not legal advice and does not guarantee citizenship eligibility.