Looking for an italian relative's place of birth
Hello, my name is Luciana and i´m helping my father in law to find his italian great grandfather. His name was Luigi Nicora (Luis Nicora in Argentina) and so far we know he got married in 1876 in Cañuelas, Province of Buenos Aires at 23 years old.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939D-GDVC-P?i=368&cc=1972912
I´ve been searching for his surname and it appears mostly in the Lombardia Region (mostly in Varese) or in Liguria but haven't found many baptism records from his estimated birth year (1853).
I would appreciate any kind of information or help.
Thanks a lot.
Luciana
Comments
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You are correct that the surname Nicora appears most common in the province of Varese, but also in the province of Genova, Liguria. A lot of people from both regions emigrated to Argentina during this time period. See: https://www.cognomix.it/mappe-dei-cognomi-italiani/NICORA
Unfortunately, it will be extremely difficult and possibly even impossible to find your ancestor in Italian records. There are 2 major difficulties with Italian research. Firstly, records are organized locally by municipality (comune), and there are very few records that are indexed. You absolutely need to know which town your ancestor came from, or else research is virtually impossible. Secondly, records prior to 1866 in Northern Italy are exclusively in the churches, and can only be consulted on-location. If you know the exact town, this is feasible, but without that information, it is simply impossible to consult hundreds of churches until you find your ancestor!
My advice would be to continue looking for clues in the Argentinian records. You should consult with a group more focused on Argentine research. There may be immigration records or other records that actually name the exact town of origin in Italy. I would also try to find a record that gives Luigi's mother Maria's surname more legibly. If you had her surname too, you could cross-reference which towns have both Nicora and this surname in common and focus your efforts there.
There are records online from both regions in the period after 1866. Although you would not be able to find Luigi in these records, you may be able to find Giovanni or Maria's death or you may also find birth, marriage, and death records of some of Luigi's siblings. Any of these records would allow you to at least confirm you have the correct town of origin.
Good luck with this project!
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According to CEMLA (https://cemla.com/), there are a lot of people with that surname who arrived. If you know some of his relatives, you could search the Argentine civil or church records to find their hometown. Without knowing that, it's not easy as the previous poster said.
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