Genealogy in Reggio Calabria
Tracing your Italian roots back to Reggio Calabria (in Reggio Calabria province, Calabria region) begins with understanding which records exist and where they are preserved. On this page you’ll find a clear guide to the civil, parish and historical sources available for genealogy in Reggio Calabria.
Reggio Calabria family history at a glance
- Region: Calabria
- Province: Reggio Calabria
- Record types available: civil and parish registers
- Civil registration: began in 1809
- Parish records: often earlier than civil registration (sometimes as far back as the 1600s)
Research experience on families in Reggio Calabria
Over the years, ItalianSide has conducted genealogy research on historical families from Reggio Calabria, involving many surnames traditionally found in the town, including branches of the following families: Malara, Laganà, Barreca, Calabrò, Latella, Foti, Romeo, Morabito, Polimeni, Surace, Labate, Marino, Minniti, Tripodi and others.
Many records relating to families and individuals are already stored in our databases and include, in addition to names and dates, further information such as occupations, residential addresses, and key family and social relationships within the Reggio Calabria community in past centuries.
Part of the information used by ItalianSide in genealogy research derives from a proprietary archive of on-site research conducted over many years in Reggio Calabria and by our experts. This archive includes studies, family trees, and data not available online, such as cross-referenced family relationships, occupational histories, deciphered or translated documents, residential patterns, and visual documentation.
Research activities may include all major sources available at municipal, provincial, and regional level:
• civil records
• parish registers
• notarial archives
• military records
• historical and photographic sources
Direct access to archives and a deep understanding of the local context allow for more complete and accurate results than research conducted remotely or based on partial sources alone. Research may be carried out using all available sources in both public and private archives.
Genealogy in Reggio Calabria
If your ancestors came from Reggio Calabria, in Reggio Calabria province (Calabria region), the first step is to identify the local archives where records are kept. Most family history research starts from the civil registry office at the Comune and continues in parish and notary archives.
Where to begin your ancestry journey in Reggio Calabria
Vital records for people born, married or deceased in Reggio Calabria are usually preserved in:
- Reggio Calabria City Hall archives: civil records (births, marriages, deaths) available from 1809 onwards.
- Reggio Calabria parish churches: in Calabria, religious registers that can trace family lines back to the 1600s, and in some cases even earlier.
Civil Records (Stato Civile) in Reggio Calabria
In towns and villages of Calabria and in Reggio Calabria province, civil registration offices were established starting in 1809. This means you can often find your ancestors’ civil records in the Town Hall archives of Reggio Calabria from that year onwards.
(If your goal is to obtain Italian citizenship and you need official certificates from Reggio Calabria, please follow this link.)
If your ancestors lived in Reggio Calabria during the past centuries, the City Office of Reggio Calabria is usually the first place to start your family research. Our local expert can access these records on your behalf and interpret them correctly.
- Professions: discover what your ancestors did for a living.
- Addresses: find the street or house where the family lived in Reggio Calabria.
- Family links: identify parents, witnesses and neighbours that appear in the records.
- Signatures and notes: see how your ancestors signed and read any marginal annotations.
If you prefer to contact the Town Hall by yourself, we suggest reading our genealogy tips for Italy. They include practical advice for research in Calabria and specifically in Reggio Calabria.
Population trends in Reggio Calabria
The chart below shows the demographic trends in Reggio Calabria from the Italian Unification (1861). Understanding how many people lived in the town over time is useful when interpreting migration and family movements.
Church Records in Reggio Calabria
Church archives in Reggio Calabria province often preserve information that predates civil records. Parish registers include baptisms, marriages and burials and sometimes allow you to push your family tree back into the 1700s and 1600s.
In many areas of Calabria, parish registers began around the 1500s. These manuscripts are not easy to access from abroad and can be hard to read without specific training.
Our local genealogists, graduated in history and archival studies, can consult the parish archives of Reggio Calabria on your behalf and reconstruct your family history through the centuries.
Notary records and other historical sources
Another important source of information is represented by notary documents, which preserve wills, dowries, property sales and contracts. These records are usually kept in provincial and State Archives and can provide valuable details on the social and economic life of your family.
Historical and photographic sources available in private archives
Historical photographs, prints, and documents from private collections—including ItalianSide’s archive of vintage images from Reggio Calabria and Calabria region are available. Old pictures add significant value to your family history research and offer a real sense of the places where your ancestors once lived.
Military records
Conscription lists and service records documenting physical descriptions, dates and places of enlistment, units and ranks held, periods of service, military postings, transfers, and movements, often providing detailed insight into an individual’s life beyond civil registration.
Cadastral and property records in Reggio Calabria
Historical cadastral and land records used to identify property ownership, track real estate transfers over time, and confirm the historical presence of families within Reggio Calabria. ItalianSide provides professional assistance in accessing and interpreting these records, where available.
Planning a visit to Reggio Calabria
From our experience, if you plan to visit Reggio Calabria we always recommend starting the research months before your arrival. This way you avoid spending your holidays in offices or churches dealing with bureaucracy.
Remember that archives are not open to the general public and officers or priests are not required by law to grant direct access to the records.
With the results collected by our genealogist before your trip, you will have more time to enjoy the town and its surroundings, walking in the footsteps of your ancestors.
Ready to explore Reggio Calabria? Discover our travel proposals to Calabria and Reggio Calabria — or to other destinations across Italy. Our itineraries are developed with our trusted tour operator partners and supported by the expertise of our local specialists, who design personalized heritage journeys in the footsteps of your ancestors.
Professional help for research in Reggio Calabria
If you need professional support from our local genealogist in the Reggio Calabria area, write to reggiocalabria@italianside.com or fill the form here. Our expert will study your request and reply with a research plan and a quote tailored to your family history.
Messages from other visitors in Reggio Calabria
Here below you can read messages from other visitors in the Reggio Calabria forum. If you simply want to discuss genealogy in Reggio Calabria with other people, feel free to leave a message.
My Great Grandfather Antonio Romeo born may 11 1889 in Arasi reggio di calabria, italty died in San Francisco CA on June 9th 1940. married in Watertown New York on April 4th 1915.
My name is Gary Joseph morabito . My grand father was fransesco morabito , his brother was Anthony . Fransesco came to the rochester area from regi-regi in the year 1912 . I don’t know when his brother came , but I know he settled in Binghamton ny . Grandfather was Rochester New York . I would like to correspond with my relatives bin calabria . His wife , my grandmother whom raised me was from compobasso . Her name was Maria Nicole Salvatore . Her mother was Antonia collucci .
My father, Giuseppe Totino, was born in Reggio Calabria on December 7, 1911. His family later moved to Lake Como in northern Italy before he and his brother Dominic immigrated to the United States in 1927. I am looking for any information I can gather about his family and any still living relatives. Thank you for your help.
I am looking for information about my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather. I don’t know their names.
My Grandfather (their son) was Ferdinando Cardella. He was born in 1881 in Reggio di Calabria. He came to the United States in 1902 at the age of 21.
He died here in the the United States in 1936.
Do you know the birthdate of your grandfather?
I am looking for information about my Great Grandmother, Theresa Scupaliti from Reggio Calabria.
She died in Syracuse, New York I believe. Her married name was Theresa Logano.
Thank you so much!
Trying to get information about my grandmother and grandfather – Caterina Versace (1905) and Pasquale Dagin (1888). Both are from Bova, Italy and landed in this country on August 3, 1928 or 1938. They lived in the Bronx, New York, and had three children. Children: Biagene Dagin, Elizabeth Dagin Cea, Teresa Dagin Lattanzio.
I am trying to find information on my paternal great grandfather; Antonio Dominick Galluccio. I believe he was born in 1881 and emigrated to the US in 1904. Birth date, parents, etc. Any insight would be great.
I am trying to see if there are any Carrocci’s still in Caulonia, Reggio, Calabria. I will be visiting there in October and would love to connect with relatives
Hello, I’m looking for my paternal side of the family starting in the 1800s with Pietro Ricca who married a Giustina. Then Vincenzo Ricca married Angela from Brazil. From there was a marriage into the Cappelli family that crossed with the Delfino family of Calabria. Any information greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Maria
I am looking for my father’s family. He was born in Pallizzi and was brought to the US as an infant. Their a Italian last name was Stellatano, I believe, and was changed to Stellone. Their was a Brother who returned to Pallizzi and had more children . If anyone has any information I would appreciate it.
Are you sure about the name? I’m from Reggio Calabria and I think that the real name in Palizzi is Stillitano…
I am researching my ggrandfather Antonio Romeo. He was born 26 Sep 1883 and his birth was registered in Gallina. Family lore says actual home was in Ravagnese. His father was Pasquale and he died before 1922. His mother was Antonia Prattico. Antonio had at least two brothers who also came to the US. Francesco, born in 1889 also emigrated to the US permanently. There was another brother, Giuseppe who was in the US in 1925, but then disappears. Can not confirm death or return to Italy. I know that Romeo is a very common name in that region, but am hoping to someday connect with distant family there.
I too am researching the Romeo’s. I’ve found quite a lot of info. I dont believe we are directly related but maybe distant. My grandparents were Maria Rosa Romeo( 1908-1998) and Antonio Giuseppe Ciro Fabbrizo Bova. (1892-1950). My great grandparents were Giuseppe Maria Romeo (1879-1964) and Maria Rosa Romeo (1885-1948). They were first cousins. As far as I know they originated from Plati.
Rosa was the sister of my great grandfather, Antonio.
I am looking for information on my grandfather and his family.
Francesco “Frank” Daniele was born on June 17, 1891, in Torre di Ruggiero, Catanzaro, Italy, to Maria Grazia Caterina Pirroncello, age 22, and Domenico Nicolo Daniele, age 30.
17 Jun 1891 • Torre di Ruggiero, Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy.
Francesco “Frank” Daniele died on December 2, 1980, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when he was 89 years old.
02 Dec 1980 • Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA
I am in Australia and looking for any descendants of the Ielasi family from Plati & Careri. Word has it that all Ielasi’s are related and all descendants stem back to 2 brothers.
My Great-Grandfather was Domenico Ielasi married to Maria Policano…came to Australia in 1937 – they had 7 children.
there are several large Ielasi families here and I am attempting to join-the-dots… (ambitious I know)! Other surnames that might be connected are Catanzariti, Policano, Surace, Aloisi, Perre, Sergi, Chirco. If you have any information relating to the Ielasi’s, I would love to hear from you…
I am looking for Guiseppe Intrieri but it could be Iaria born 1879 in Calabria. His wife was Rosa Silicy(maybe) 1888. They came to US and changed their name to Joseph & Rosa Winters.
I am searching for mai family in Italy.
My grand mother: Rafaela (Raphaela?) Tramontano (Tramontana?)
Her father: Filipo Tramontano(Tramontana?).
Her mother: Maria Giuseppa Gentil
She migrate to Brasil.
From Calabria.
My grandfather Rocco Nicholas coriale was born in Calabria D Calabria in the province of Reggio materna Parish I think April 22nd 1885 I believe. I cannot find anything before that. I have his father’s name which was Joseph coriale unknown to me if it was changed from Giuseppe. I cannot find the gravesite of my great-grandfather Joseph. I know Joseph lived with Rocco in Rome New York and he was marriedto Filomena Luiere, also died in Rome New York. Rocco coriale married Amelia Tarallo, she died in childbirth in Rome New York. Joseph may have had two children a boy and a girl Rocco and Rosa we do not know Rosa or anything of her. The problem is there is coriale family and Utica New York that say they are no relation I do not believe that the branches do not come from a trunk of a tree. I can certainly use your help my daughter is a family history specialist and she can’t find it either
My grandfather was born in Reggio calabria jiossa marinna 1910.I know he had a brother.His name was Luigi I think he lived in the state ssomewhere.He pasted.I would like to know if there’s family
I am looking for info on my Grandfather, Louis or luigi who immigrated to Ottawa Canada, thru New York in 1905, with 3 brothers and one sister. Born in Spezzano Piccolo in around 1880.
I am at a dead end, I can’t find my family at all in Reggio Calabria (Where apparently my family is from) I have a great great uncle who stayed in Italy, but I can’t track them down. When my family came to America they apparently change their last name and NO ONE knows what it orginally was. I found a letter from my great great uncle and I was able to trace back the address in Giora Tauro. any idea what I should do next? I tried to look for my great great grandparents, but it was as if they never existed, I can’t find any record on them. The last name they came to America with was Capalario.
My name is Domenico minici I’m looing for my great great grandfather was born in Gioiosa Ionica Reggio calabria, my grandfather was born in Gioiosa Ionica Reggio calabria in 1910 .I wou like to know. where there living at.Please Reply. Domenic minici.Canada. toronto.Ontario.