Many of the people who write to us from the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Australia or France arrive with the same question: “My great-grandfather was Tuscan. How can I find out where he came from?” Often they have a name, a surname spelled in several different ways, perhaps a photograph or a passport. This guide explains where to start, which records exist in Tuscany and what can be done from abroad.

1. Gather what your family already knows

Research in Italy almost always starts from a piece of information found in the country of arrival. Before turning to Italian archives, collect everything you have at home or in your relatives’ memories:

• the emigrant ancestor’s first name and surname, with every known spelling (surnames were often altered on arrival);
• approximate dates of birth, marriage and departure;
• passports, photographs with the name of the studio, letters, holy cards, military papers;
• the names of the emigrant’s parents, which often appear on his or her marriage or death records abroad.

2. Find the town of origin

The key step is knowing the municipality (comune), or better still the parish, of birth. “Tuscany”, “Florence” or “Lucca” are not enough: Italian archives are organised by municipality and by parish. The place is usually found in records from the country of arrival: ship passenger lists, naturalisation papers, marriage and death certificates, the registers of the parish where the emigrant married.

If the place remains unknown, the distribution of the surname can help: some Tuscan surnames are typical of just a few villages. On our Search for your family page you can check for free whether a surname appears in our archives and in the 1841 Tuscan census.

3. The sources in Tuscany

Once the place is known, you go back in time using different sources for each period:

• Italian civil registration (from 1866): birth, marriage and death records kept by the municipality; the older ones are also held by the State Archives.
• Tuscan civil registration (1808–1865): introduced under Napoleon and continued after the Restoration. It is a precious source for Tuscany because it links families across the whole Grand Duchy, and many registers can be viewed online.
• The 1841 Tuscan census: lists the families of the Grand Duchy house by house, with the age of each member. It is a remarkable tool for placing a family in its village and estimating dates of birth.
• Parish registers: baptisms, marriages and burials, usually from the late sixteenth century. For the earlier generations they are the main source; they are kept in the parishes or in diocesan archives.
• Other sources: military draft lists and service records, passport registers, notarial deeds, land registers. They help confirm identities, movements and occupations.

In Livorno, the city of the Nations, there are also the records of the non-Catholic communities: Jewish, Protestant, Greek and Armenian. We have been working with them for many years, and they are often decisive for merchant and emigrant families.

4. What you can do online, and its limits

The Italian Ministry of Culture’s Antenati portal publishes free images of many civil registration books, as well as the 1841 Tuscan census. FamilySearch also offers registers and indexes. They are excellent tools, but:

• not every municipality or year is online;
• parish registers, essential before the nineteenth century, rarely are;
• the records are handwritten, in old Italian or Latin, with abbreviations and difficult handwriting;
• automatic indexes contain errors, and a namesake in the same village can lead you astray.

5. What about Italian citizenship?

Many people start their research with citizenship by descent (iure sanguinis) in mind. The rules changed on 28 March 2025: for people born abroad who hold another citizenship, recognition is now possible only in more limited cases, for example when a parent or grandparent held Italian citizenship exclusively. Before starting an application, check your situation with your Italian consulate or a lawyer. We take care of the research side: tracing the line of descent and obtaining the records you need.

6. When to turn to a professional

If the town of origin cannot be found, if the registers are not online, if the handwriting is illegible or if you want to reach the seventeenth century, professional research saves months. We work entirely at a distance, by email, with clients all over the world: we search the archives, send you digital copies of the records and, on request, trees, charts and maps of your family. On our Case studies page you will find some real examples, including twelve generations traced for an American client.