The project
Italy Surname Map was inspired by the old Gens project and was developed with the same goal: to satisfy people's curiosity about how their surname is distributed across Italy.
A surname carries a sense of belonging to a family that includes all of one's ancestors. How common it is, where it is most widespread, whether it comes from several separate branches or, on the contrary, how rare it is: all of this helps satisfy our curiosity about a word we are given at birth and carry with us for the rest of our lives.
Source of the data
The surname maps were produced by processing more than 27 million records, the result of a huge and painstaking collection of data from the telephone directories of the 1990s.
The result therefore does not reflect changes that have taken place since the beginning of the new century, and it does not include families that never had a telephone in that period.
Despite these gaps, the result is still well suited to the purpose of the project.
The choice not to use current data is mainly due to the fact that in recent years mobile phones have overtaken landlines, greatly reducing the number of subscribers with a fixed line. In addition, tracing the origins of one's surname is one of the core principles of this project, and older data fits that goal better.
Contribute to our new project
Help us rebuild the history of Italian surnames!
We are collecting information about ancestors who died more than 50 years ago, in order to build a historical map of how surnames spread over time and across the country. The project is for genealogical and cultural research.
No registration is required: you can send your report quickly and easily by filling in the form at the following link (in Italian):
👉 Report an ancestor
Every contribution helps enrich this collective memory.
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