What full research means
The preliminary assessment establishes what exists. This is the work of actually
recovering it.

Our archivists in Florence and Venice go into the collections and read them: parish registers in ecclesiastical Latin, notarial acts in nineteenth-century legal Italian, community ledgers in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian, Napoleonic civil registers, ghetto census rolls, marriage contracts, wills, burial records, tax lists.

Most of this material is not digitized. Much of it will never be. It is read by hand, by someone who can read it, in the building where it is kept.

What comes back is your family, generation by generation, with a source citation under every name.

What you receive

  • A documented family tree
    Every individual we can establish, with dates, places, occupations, and relationships. Where the evidence is strong we say so; where it is inferred we mark it as inference. Records indicate rather than prove, and we are explicit about which is which.
  • The documents themselves
    High-resolution images of every record located, each transcribed from the original hand and translated into English. For most families this is the first time they have seen their own name written in an Italian register.
  • A written narrative
    The family's history in plain English: where they lived, what they did, when they moved and why, what the community around them looked like. This is the part that gets read aloud at the table. The tree is for reference; the narrative is what makes it mean something.
  • Historical context
    Your family placed inside what was happening around them: the ghetto years, emancipation in the 1860s, the emigration decades, 1938, the war. What the records show, and what the records do not show.
  • A research log
    Every archive consulted, every collection searched, every dead end. You will know exactly what was done, including what produced nothing, which matters if anyone continues the work later.
  • Recommendations for further work
    Where the trail continues and what it would take to follow it.
How the research is conducted
  • Weeks one to two
    Scoping. We define the research question precisely: which line, how far back, what you most want answered. Then we build the archival plan from the assessment findings.
  • Weeks three to twelve
    Archival work in Italy. Our researchers work the collections in person. You receive interim updates as significant records surface; we do not go silent for three months.
  • Weeks thirteen to fifteen

    Transcription, translation, and writing. The documents are rendered readable and the narrative is written.

  • Week sixteen
    Delivery, followed by a call to walk through the findings and answer what the documents raise.

    Complex cases such as multiple lines, several regions, records requiring formal access requests, run longer. We tell you at scoping if that applies.

From $4,500.
Pricing depends on how many lines are researched, how many archives are involved, and how far back the records allow us to go. You receive a fixed quote at scoping, before any work begins, not an hourly rate that expands.
If you completed a preliminary assessment with us, the full $950 is credited against this, provided you begin within 90 days.
FAQ
  • Do I have to do the preliminary assessment first?
    In almost every case, yes. It is what makes a fixed quote possible and it protects you from paying for research that the records will not support. If you already hold thorough documentation from another researcher, tell us and we will look at it.
  • How far back can you go?
    It depends entirely on the archive. Italian Jewish community records are unusually deep by European standards. Some collections run to the sixteenth century. Others end in 1943. The assessment tells you which situation you are in before you commit.
  • What if the family converted?
    The trail continues, it just moves. Conversion records, Catholic parish registers, and Inquisition-era documentation often carry the line forward. Following it across both Jewish and Catholic collections is routine work for us, not an obstacle.
  • Can this be used for Italian citizenship?
    Citizenship applications require specific certified documents obtained through a particular legal process, and the rules changed in 2025. Our research frequently identifies exactly which records exist and where, but we are genealogists, not citizenship attorneys, and we do not file applications.
  • What if you find something difficult?
    We tell you. Families discover deportations, conversions, abandonments, second families, children who did not survive. We deliver what the records say, and we tell you before you read it if there is something in the report you should be prepared for.
  • Who actually does the work?
    Our own archivists, based in Italy, working in the collections directly. Not subcontracted, not outsourced to a database search.
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