How To Request Documents

Here is all the information you will need to request any document from any city or town in Italy.

Step 1: Finding the city or town’s address

  • Click on the link on the right for “Guida ai Comuni d’Italia”. Although this page is in Italian, you do not need to know Italian to search it’s contents.
  • Scroll down and you will see a search bar for “Cerca Comune”, type the city or town name and click “Vai”.
      You will then see a results page with the “Comune” (Town), “Provincia” (Province (WRITE DOWN), “Regione” (Region), “Pref.” (Phone Prefix), “CAP” (Zip/Postal Code) and other information.

What you will see

Results Page

  • Click on the town’s name and you will see more detail for that town.
  • On this page you will need to write down the CAP, Provincia and Indirizzo.

Final Results Page
The envelope address should be formatted like this:

AL SIGNORE SINDACO
COMUNE DI TOWN/CITY NAME
INDIRIZZO
CAP, COMUNE (Abbreviation)
ITALIA

For example, Rome’s address is:

AL SIGNORE SINDACO
COMUNE DI ROMA
VIA DEL CAMPIDOGLIO 1
00100, ROMA (RM)
ITALIA

Step 2: Writing the letter

Below is a template you can use when requesting vital records from Italy. Remember to choose the words with the correct gender when completing this template (M for male & F for female) and replace all BOLD text with your ancestor’s information:

    AL SIGNOR SINDACO
    COMUNE DI (TOWN NAME)
    INDIRIZZO
    CAP PAESE (PROV.)
    ITALIA
    Il sottoscritto, LAST NAME First
    discendente del Sig.(M)/della Signora(F) ANCESTOR’S LAST NAME/First
    nato(M)/nata(F) a (TOWN NAME) il (DATE OF BIRTH DD/MM/YYYY)
    **if you do not know your descendent’s parents’ names, skip the next 2 lines!!**
    figlio(M)/figlia(F) di FATHER’S LAST NAME/First
    e figlio(M)/figlia(F) di MOTHER’S LAST NAME/First
    chiede cortesemente il rilascio di un:

    - ATTO DI NASCITA CON PATERNITA E MATERNITA (for birth certificates)
    - ATTO DI MATRIMONIO CON: SPOUSE’S NAME LAST/First (for marriage certificates)
    - ATTO DI MORTE (for death certificates)-in carta semplice e con le eventuali annotazioni marginali.  Se Lei ha qualche domande, per piacere mi manda una e-mail a questo indirizzo: (YOUR EMAIL)

    CORDIALMENTE,

    (SIGNATURE)    YOUR NAME

    INDIRIZZO:
    YOUR FULL MAILING ADDRESS AND COUNTRY
    **Include a $2.10 International Reply Coupon when mailing from the United States or your postal service’s equivalent**