Which data are needed by the State Archive of Udine to assist with the search? The locality of provenience.
To start a search, it's absolutely necessary to have certainty that the ancestor is of Friulian origin and therefore assure yourself of this and send us - if possible - also the copy of documents which can certify the origin of provenience (for example, boarding cards, etc.). In the case that you are not in possession of official documents, you can acquire the information also through unofficial sources, such as the following: letters or postcards arriving from Friuli sent to the ancestor or significant personal documents that testify to friendships such as photographs; confirmation mementos; and, old clippings from newspapers from Friuli because they may contain useful clues (for example, photographs may have in the background a city square or a identifiable building or monument, etc.).
It's also useful to try and stimulate the memory of friends and relatives; frequently, a simple piece of information from a specific event that happened in the past, even to other families known, may be useful to make the needed connections to arrive at the required information.
In the case that you are not in possession of written or oral records, another strategy to take that we feel the need to tell you of, is the possibility to consult the data bases present on the Internet that are related to the presence of family names across Italy. From this and other databases, you can ascertain the presence of your ancestor's family name in both in Friuli and Italy. www.labo.net/cognomi Besides consulting the databases on the web in relation to Italian emigration to different countries around the world, you can verify from where other Italian emigrants with your ancestors' last name came from. The two following sites can also be consulted as well: www.fondazione-agnelli.it/Italy www.ellisisland.org Registrar's data
Having already ascertained your Friulian origin, the personal data that you absolutely must send are the following: family name and name, paternity and maternity, date of birth of the ancestor. In relation to the date of birth, the date provided must be as exact as possible, not necessarily in relation so much for the exact day or month, but in relation to the precise month. If you don't know the exact year, you should indicate the approximate year. The research for the information required will be carried out on the preceding and succeeding years. The requests which indicate periods of time, such as "born between the year … and the year ….", which are superior to a total of three years or more will not be considered.
