The Importance of Genealogy
As a little kid, I spent a lot of time pestering my parents and grandparents about my ancestors and where my family came from. Perhaps it’s just part of our natural instinct to want to know who our people are and where we belong. Growing up in the melting pot that is the US, it wasn’t unusual for people to ask “what are you?” Translation: “where are your ancestors from?” Although I don’t remember exactly what sparked my interest when I was little, in 2022 I wondered if there was a part of me that knew I would need the information later.
In August of 2022, I began a deep dive into my family’s roots, determined to discover whether or not I could qualify for Italian citizenship by descent (also known as jure sanguinis or jus sanguinis, literally ‘law of blood’). In some countries, citizenship is based on jus soli (law of the soil) meaning if you are born on the soil of that country, you are a citizen of that country- like the United States of America. Italian citizenship is a little more complicated. Being born in Italy isn’t enough to make you eligible for citizenship. In order to be considered Italian, you must have at least one Italian parent.
It is important to note that there have been several changes to Italian citizenship laws since my sister and I applied in July 2024, including the October 3rd circolare in 2024 regarding “The Minor Issue” and the Decreto Legge (or Decree Law) 36/2025 that was put into effect on March 28th 2025, and passed into law as Decreto Legge 74/2025 on May 24th 2025. For more information on the current rules governing Italian citizenship by descent, check out our article Jure Sanguinis: The Laws Explained.
I consider myself extremely fortunate that I was able to collect my documents and submit my application in Italy via residency in 2024. It wasn’t easy or straight forward- I later learned that hardly anyone’s pathway is, no matter how direct. Beginning with genealogy to determine if I was eligible, I hit several road blocks before I even got started.
The first brick wall was finding my grandfather’s birth certificate. Although locating his death certificate was quick and relatively painless, as I had been alive at the time of his passing, the details beyond his date of birth were much more elusive. According to my living family members, our ancestors resided in New York City or New York State from the time they arrived in the US, but none of the vital statistics offices had any record of him. Hour upon hour was wasted as I pored over census records and searched relentlessly for all potential variations of his name with no luck.
My first mistake was working under the assumption that my family had given me the correct information. In this case, the misinformation was that my paternal grandfather, Salvatore, was the son of my great grandfather, also named Salvatore. What I didn’t know was that at some point after my father (haha, you guessed it, also Salvatore) was born my grandfather had a falling out with his parents (over what? I’m not sure. I have a few guesses but that’s a story for another time). Desperate for a clue, I tried searching for my great grandfather’s naturalization records by last name only. When I saw his picture, I knew instantly I found the right person. His strong jawline and piercing eyes matched perfectly the black and white photos I inherited from my father in an old metal cashbox. But his first name was not Salvatore, it was Paolo.
My great grandfather’s name wasn’t the only shock. To my surprise, I learned that my grandfather was not an only child as I had been led to believe. He had an older brother and a younger sister, both born in Italy! Additionally, according to Paolo’s naturalization records, my grandfather was born in the US, but not in New York as I had originally believed, but in West New York, New Jersey! With that final piece of information uncovered, I flew to the New Jersey State archives (as his birth was over 100 years ago) and was easily able to locate the record I had struggled to find for so long.
Between my grandfather’s birth certificate and my great grandfather’s naturalization record I had everything I needed to prove that my sister and I qualified. Naively, I thought all we needed was the rest of our family’s documents and an appointment at the consulate! If you’ve been on this journey for yourself, I’m sure you don’t have to imagine some of the other hiccoughs I encountered along the way. The story continues in my article In The Absence of Evidence, where I discuss options for missing or non-existent records (because apparently my grandparents were NOT married) and why we decided to apply in Italy (Italian consulates- if you know, you know).
P.S.
Ironically, right after I had the breakthrough of finding my great grandfather’s naturalization record, I went looking through my family photos just to be 100% certain that they matched and that I had the right person. Amongst those old photos was a page from my grandfather’s first passport when he was 16 years old- and there it was: “Place of Birth: West New York, New Jersey”. The lesson here is, don’t trust everything your family tells you, but definitely take a closer look at whatever printed documents your family has- even if it’s only a photograph.
