Region: Campania Province: Salerno
Tracing your Italian roots back to Laviano, in Salerno province, Campania region?
This comprehensive guide empowers you to understand the records available in Laviano, unlocking your family’s rich history.
Where to Begin Your Ancestry Journey in Laviano
If your ancestral trail leads to Laviano, Italy, their vital records are likely housed in two key locations:
- Laviano City Hall Archives: Established in 1809, these archives hold civil registry records like births, marriages, and deaths for Laviano residents since then.
- Laviano Parish Churches: For records pre-dating 1809 or for religious ceremonies, exploring Laviano’s parish church archives might be necessary.
Civil Records in Laviano
In towns and villages of Campania and in Salerno province civil registry offices were established in 1809: it means that you could find your ancestors records in Laviano Town Hall archives as of that date.
(If your goal is to get your Italian Citizenship and you need official certificates from Laviano Municipality, follow this link).
So, if your ancestors lived in Laviano during the past centuries, then you should start your family research from the City Office of Laviano to know more: our local expert is ready to help you in your research!
With his deep knowledge of people and local history he will assist you not only finding names and dates (births, marriages, deaths) but he will reveal to you many other precious information on the life of your ancestors available in the old registers.
- Professions: do you know what your ancestors did for a living? Our genealogist will be able to give you this info!
- Addresses: the house where your family lived (a great information if you intend to visit Laviano !)
- Churches: where they were baptized or married
- Signatures: if your ancestors knew how to write, he will be able to show you their original signatures.
(If you can’t visit Laviano, our researcher will give you the necessary info to find by yourself the relevant places on the maps available online)
Next picture shows the demographic trends in Laviano from the Italian Unification (1861).
This is a necessary info to understand how many people lived in the town in the past.
To go on quickly in your research is important to know if the last name you are investigating is a frequent surname in Laviano. As more your surname is common, as more it could be difficult to find the right branch of your ancestors family in Laviano archives, expecially if you have not exact dates (there could be cases of homonymy).
It’s useful for you to know that some of the most common surnames in Salerno province are:
Alfano, Amato, Annunziata, Apicella, Bruno, Califano, Caputo, Cirillo, Coppola, Cuomo, D’Amato, D’Ambrosio, D’Angelo, De Luca, De Martino, De Rosa, Esposito, Ferraioli, Ferrara, Gallo, Giordano, Greco, Grimaldi, Iannone, Lamberti, Landi, Manzo, Marino, Napoli, Pagano, Palumbo, Pellegrino, Pepe, Rinaldi, Rizzo, Romano, Ruggiero, Russo, Santoro, Senatore, Sessa, Sica, Sorrentino, Tortora, Trotta, Vitale, Vitolo, Volpe.
Church Records in Laviano
Church archives in Salerno province may store even older information. You will find religious records of the same events (births, marriages and deaths) but, most important, you could go further back in time!
So in case you would like to go back in centuries, it’s good for you to know that the parish registers in Campania started during 1500!
Parish archives are far less accessible expecially from abroad and very hard to read and decipher if you are not used and skilled.
But our local genealogists, are graduated in history and archivistics so, with their expertise, they can research the church registers of Laviano on your behalf to gather info about your family history during centuries.
For our experience, if you plan to come here to visit Laviano, we always suggest to start the research months before the arrival.
This because a comprehensive genealogy research is time consuming!
Starting from home, you will have time to get a complete research avoiding to waste your holidays in the offices or in the churches dealing with italian bureaucracy .
(Remember that archives are not open to public and officers and priests are not required by law to give you access to the local archives)
With the results gathered by our genealogist and translated in your language before your arrival, you will have the possibility to plan carefully your visit.
In this way you will have more free time to enjoy your tour to the roots on your ancestors footsteps.
Another important source of information are the notary documents available to expert researchers in the State Archives of Salerno.
If you need a professional help from our local genealogist in Laviano area , write to laviano@italianside.com or fill the form here.
Our expert will study your request and will reply to you with a plan and a quote for your family research.
If you think to contact the town hall by yourself, we suggest you to read our tips for your search. They are useful advices to search in Campania and of course in Laviano too.
Here below you can read the messages received from other visitors in Laviano forum:
if you only want to discuss with other people interested in genealogy in Laviano feel free to leave a message below.
I’ve traced my ancestors in Laviano back to Francesco Robertiello (d. 1825) who was married to Maria Falivena (d. 24 March 1825). I am unable to get the family tree back any farther. If anyone is doing research on the Robertiellos I’d be grateful for some hints.
My grandfather, Giovanni Panico was born in Laviano between 1878 and 1880 and emigrated to the United States and lived in Newark NJ. He married a woman by the name of Mary Fallivene and had 13 children 2 of which were stillborn. My father was one of those 11 children. It would be interesting to know if I have any family still in Laviano.
Hello Al. My grandmother Angelina Panico is the sister of Giovanni. He was written up as a great tailor in The history of Newark, volume 3 page 340. I will gladly send you a copy of the article.
I have some information on Giovanni Panico, he being the brother of my grandmother Angelina Panico DeVito.
My great grandfather was born in Laviano, 1871 . His name was Nicola Bozzone . I think his parents were Angelomaria Bozzone and Angelamaria Batista Forcella. In 1890 he was living in Santomenna and he got married to Angelamaria Fasano.
Antonio Pietro Panico emigrated from Laviano in the 1870s. His wife Maria (née Zecca) came from Calabritto, Avellino. Both were born in 1852.
They were my great grandparents.
For reasons that aren’t clear, after having lived in the Philadelphia area for a number of years, they started using the surname “Penico.” So the older children were named Panico and the younger ones — including my grandfather — had a last name of Penico.
My grandmother, Beatrice Caccavale, emigrated to America in 1900. According to the ship’s manifest, the last place she was lived in Italy was Laviano. My father used to tell me she came from Nola. We went to the municipe in Nola last year and there were no birth records for her. She was born on August 24, 1879. Her father was Gregorio Caccavale (born 1850). Her mother was Antonetta Ciccone (also born 1850). Would it be possible that she was born in Laviano? Is this a common name? Is it possible to get her birth records? Thank you, Gregory Ciardi
My grandfather Gerard Laviano is from Laviano, Italy. My father Giovanni Laviano (the youngest of 6 children) was born in New York in 1913 so my grandfather came here before then. I grew up with my mother’s family (Sicilian’s) so I know very little about my father’s… most of them have passed away. I am 74 now.
My grandfather was born in Salerno in 1857 . His name was Giuseppi Travisano
My grandparents came from this area around 1900 and are described as “lavianese” and sovianese. I assume one of them was from Laviano, and the other from Saviano. The names were Carmela Nicastro and Frank DiPiano. Would there be any surnames of that type in the records there? I am visiting in November 2015. Thank you