Italian Interest Group
Ciao!
Merlino brothers of Lipari, Sicily, ca 1918.
Courtesy of the Merlino family
The Southern California Genealogical Society's Italian Interest Group welcomes anyone interested in broadening their understanding of Italian and Italian American genealogical research. We are a collaborative group that shares our discoveries and helps one another to solve research problems. Together we learn useful Italian vocabulary, locate and examine various Italian vital records, explore the many Italian regions and provinces, and delve into historical events, cultural gems, family traditions, and more. We invite researchers—beginners and experts alike—to bring your genealogical questions and other items to share with others.
Unisciti a noi!
Who We Are
Meetings
Topics
Between 1880 and 1920, more than four million Italians migrated to the United States, representing over 10 percent of the nation's foreign-born population. By 2000, more than 15.6 million Americans claimed Italian ancestry—the nation’s seventh-largest ancestral group. Italians place great importance on family and heritage, and many Italian Americans are interested in tracing their roots. Like any ethnic group, gaining a greater understanding of our ancestors helps us understand who we are.
The SCGS Italian Interest Group provides a forum for supporting genealogical research using both Italian and American resources. The meetings feature programs on diverse topics while also providing
opportunities for networking and helping each other. We focus primarily on sources and methods for tracing Italian heritage, such as finding and reading Italian vital records. We also learn about
Italian history and culture provide context and background for our individual family histories. The group has something to offer everyone from beginners to hobbyists, to experts.
The Italian Interest Group meets on the third Saturday of each odd‐numbered month from 10 a.m. to noon. The final meeting of 2024 will take place on November 16. The 2025 meeting dates are January 18, March 15, May 17, July 19, September 20, and November 15. Group meetings are currently conducted online. For meeting details, please consult the SCGS Events Calendar or the Events section of the homepage, as circumstances may change.
A wide range of subjects related to Italian genealogy research are explored at our meetings. Recent topics have included the following:
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Church Records in Italy
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Applying for Italian Citizenship by Descent (jure sanguinis)
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Italian Names & Naming Conventions
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Traditional Italian Occupations
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Italian Vital Records Up Close (Birth, Marriage, and Death)
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Helpful Websites & Databases
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Useful Italian Grammar for Genealogists
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Italian Geographic Regions & Provinces
More About Us and Our Meetings
Select images or arrow on right of slideshow for more information
Italians in America
According to the 2020 United States Census, over 16 million people identified as Italian. This makes Italian the fifth most reported ancestry in the U.S., after German, English, Irish, and American. Italian Americans are also the fourth largest European ancestry group in the country.
Most Italian immigrants arrived to the U.S. through New York's Castle Garden or the legendary Ellis Island. In the 1880s, they numbered 300,000; in the 1890s, 600,000; in the decade after that, more than two million. By 1920, when immigration began to taper off, more than 4 million Italians had come to the United States, representing more than 10 percent of the nation's foreign-born population.
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Castle Garden Emigrant Depot opened in 1855 and closed in 1890.
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In the early 1900s, more than 2 million Italians immigrated to the U.S.
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Between 1900 and 1910, most Italian immigrants were from Southern Italy and Sicily, escaping rural poverty.
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Emigration from Italy declined by 1920. By then, over 4 million Italians were in the U.S., representing more than 10% of the foreign-born population.
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The second Italian diaspora (a large-scale emigration) occurred after World War II.
Although Italy as a unified nation did not exist until 1861, the Italian peninsula sent millions of its people to the shores of North America. These new arrivals thought of themselves as Neopolitans, Sicilians, Calabrians or Syracuseans. They might not have understood each other’s dialects, but on arrival in the United States they became Italian Americans. By the turn of the 20th century, they would be ready to change the continent once more.
— Library of Congress, Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History, Italian
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, International Database (demographic data) and USA Trade Online (trade data); Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook (country reference maps); and the National World War II Museum.