Finding Angelo: or how an American obtains Italian dual Citizenship

Here is a list of the documents required for me to become an Italian citizen: (please note these all need to be translated into Italian and have an apostille…whatever that is)

Your maternal great grandfather’s birth certificate from Italy 
Your maternal great grandmother’s birth certificate 
Your great grandparents’ marriage certificate 
Your maternal great grandfather’s certificate of naturalization OR statement of “No Records” 
Your maternal grandfather’s birth certificate
Your maternal grandmother’s birth certificate 
Your grandparents’ marriage certificate 
Your mother’s birth certificate 
Your father’s birth certificate 
Your parents’ marriage certificate 
Your birth certificate 
Death certificates for anyone listed above 

The fun part about having this list is that I’m really going to have to search and learn a lot about my family in order to acquire all of these documents, thus actually getting closer to my roots.  The hard part about this list is that the Meles are not the most organized species.  At the beginning of the search, we have only very slightly possibly the birth certificates of myself, my mother and my father. The caveat is that I have never actually seen these birth certificates and somewhat doubt that we actually have them.

Additionally, I have learned that my parents do not know where of if they have a marriage certificate.  Oy to the vey.

Next up, a trip to Grandma’s house!

I love this post from the new blog Finding Angelo. It’s a great motivation for historical discovery and a bit of detective work. Interesting that citizenship seems to be maternally passed down; what other countries are like that?

Looking forward to following this process through Ariel’s blog; you should follow it too!

Finding Angelo: or how an American obtains Italian dual Citizenship