I recently received an email from a person in the Italian Citizen Assistance office in Italy. This person is assisting her client in Georgia to obtain dual citizenship in USA/Italy. (already American citizen). Part of the process in going back in his ancestry to confirm his family was Italian. They were able to obtain his great-grandmother’s baptismal record certified with the Church seal. As this record is from PA (near where I live and do business) they reached out to me to do a ‘certification of true copy’ as it needs to be apostilled in PA.
She can arrange to send me the original and I can then certify a copy and mail back.
My concern: All communication has been by email although I did call the number on her email initially to speak with her about this and although she was not in at the time, the person who answered confirmed I was in touch with the right office and she does work there. They are in a 6 hour time difference so co-ordinating a phone call has been challenging. I don’t necessarily need to ID anyone to certify a copy but I did ask her to send me some sort of ID that she is who she says she is and works where she says she does, as this digital world there are too many imposters. I truly think she is with the Italian Citizen group. What sort of ID would you accept or would you bother since this is about a piece of paper and not a person?
I don’t have an opinion about the ID.
Vital records are not usually kept confidential for old records. This isn’t a government vital record, but I think the same idea applies; confidentiality isn’t as important for old records.
What I’d worry about is whether the certificate is authentic. My first choice would be to go to the church and have them issue a fresh church birth certificate, and give an oath to the priest where the priest swears it’s a true copy of the church’s record. But I’d have to be careful about not giving legal advice.
Maybe ask the priest how it’s usually handled.
It’s not a birth certificate, it’s a baptismal record. Different items. In PA we can’t do anything with ‘vital records’ such as birth/death certificates. I do see your point though.
About 5 years ago, it became very easy for Italian descendants to obtain dual citizenship. When COVID hit, this started a run on applications. I have been contacted mostly by the firms that help to facilitate the application since many of the records needed are housed in a genealogical society near me.
All communication is through email since many of the companies are in Italy but I’ve never had issues coordinating the appointments. They ARE legitimate facilitators of the process and typically will pay you up front.
Naturalization docs are very simple. Since the society is the keeper of the originals, in Ohio I have the society representative show me the original and I notarize her signature on a Copy Certification by Document Custodian. It varies as to who is mailing the original; sometimes it is me and other times it is the genealogical society.
As for baptismal records, the church is the custodian of the documents. I meet with the priest who is in possession of the original. Depending on whether the church is issuing a copy or the certified original will determine whether a loose certificate will be attached or a Copy Certification by Doc Custodian. Most often, it is an original document and the church already has the loose certificate for me.
Since this involves citizenship, you may want to send them to an immigration attorney.
Hi Michele ~ I’m in WA State. Lately have been receiving a lot of notarization requests for citizens from other countries. Some of these requests are too time consuming and not able to read languages on documents. I have started referring these requests to consulates in nearest US location for their country. Such as India Consulate in Seattle. Internet search will find nearest consulate. I did see Italian Consulate in PA that also notarizes documents. Good luck!
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