Paese: Italian Ancestry and Citizenship Research
A research platform for Italian ancestry, emigration records, and citizenship by descent
What it is
Paese helps people of Italian descent trace their family history and figure out if they qualify for Italian citizenship by descent. It covers all 7,900+ Italian comuni with vital records contacts, surname distribution data, emigration records from 1876 to 2014, and NARA passenger ship manifests from 1830 to 1912. The tagline: Ancestry tells you you're Italian. Paese tells you what to do next.
What I did
I built the platform and all the data pipelines. Data comes from seven sources: ISTAT for geographic hierarchy and population, SITUAS for historical name changes, ISTAT Serie Storiche for emigration stats, NARA for 2 million+ passenger arrival records, 8milaCensus and Tomo 1 for historical population back to 1861, and Wikidata for 130,000+ notable Italians. Everything runs through Python ETL scripts into Supabase. The frontend is Next.js with shadcn/ui.
How it works
You can search by surname to see where in Italy that name is concentrated, how many people with that name emigrated, and which ship manifests mention it. You can browse the full geographic hierarchy from regions down to individual comuni, each with population history going back to 1861, notable people, and contact details for the anagrafe.
There are five research guides covering eligibility rules (including the 2025 reform and the 1948 rule), the Ellis Island name change myth, dual citizenship implications, and Italian immigration history. A glossary defines 38 Italian legal and administrative terms with audio pronunciations. There is also a daily province identification game.
Premium features (on a waitlist) include comune contact details, document request templates in Italian, a personalized document checklist, and consulate tracking.
Why it matters
Getting Italian citizenship by descent requires documents from specific comuni, and figuring out which comune your ancestors came from is the hard part. The information exists in scattered government databases, archived ship manifests, and census records across multiple countries. Paese puts it in one place and walks you through the process.