UK documents for Italian authorities
An Italian office reads a British document with Italian eyes. It expects to find in a birth certificate the names of both parents and their details, in a marriage certificate the civil status of the spouses before the ceremony, in a naturalisation record a date, and it expects every name to be written in the same way in every document. The British records were not designed with that reader in mind. This page sets out, document by document, which version to obtain and what to check before it is sent.
Birth, marriage and death certificates
For England and Wales the certificates are issued by the General Register Office or by the local register office, and the Italian offices accept only the full certificate, the long form, which gives the parents of the person born, the fathers of the spouses and the informant. The short birth certificate, which names the child only, is refused. For Scotland the extracts are issued by National Records of Scotland, and for Northern Ireland by the General Register Office for Northern Ireland, in a form which contains the same details. Certified copies issued recently are preferred, because the apostille is placed on the signature of the registrar who issued the copy, and an old certificate with a signature the Legalisation Office cannot verify is returned.
A birth certificate of unmarried parents must name both parents as informants for the consulate to accept it as proof of the father’s parentage. A certificate which names the mother only is completed by a declaration of acknowledgment made by the father at the consulate’s notary office, or by a re-registration of the birth at the General Register Office which adds the father. A marriage certificate shows the condition of the spouses, bachelor, spinster, widowed or divorced, and the Italian registrar reads it: a condition which does not match the Italian record, a divorce never transcribed, stops the file.
Home Office records
The proof that an ancestor did or did not become British comes from the Home Office. On request, with the ancestor’s details and the proof of the family relationship, the Home Office confirms in writing whether a person was naturalised or registered as a British citizen and on which date, or that no record exists. The letter carries an official signature and is apostilled by the Legalisation Office. For naturalisations before 1987 the duplicate certificates are held by The National Archives at Kew, where a copy of the certificate itself, with the date and the oath, is obtained. For a naturalisation between 1987 and today the certificate of naturalisation of the ancestor, if the family kept it, is apostilled as an original government document. The date matters more than the fact, because the loss of Italian citizenship under the law of 1912 took effect on the date of the naturalisation, and the next generation is Italian or not according to whether it was born before or after.
Police certificates
An application for citizenship by marriage or by residence requires criminal record certificates from the country of birth, from every country of citizenship and from the countries of residence since the age of fourteen. For the United Kingdom the certificate is issued by ACRO Criminal Records Office, as a police certificate for visa and immigration purposes, with the applicant’s names, including any former names, the date of birth and the addresses of the last ten years. It is valid for six months for the Italian authorities, it is apostilled on paper, and it is translated. A DBS certificate is not accepted in its place. A person who has lived in another country must obtain the equivalent certificate there, legalised there.
Court orders and adoption
A decree absolute, a final order of divorce, a declaration of parentage or an adoption order are accepted with a certification of true copy signed by a district judge, a solicitor or a notary, the apostille on that certification, and the translation. Orders issued electronically by the courts are accepted with the covering email. An adoption order is recognised in Italy by the juvenile court before the child is registered as Italian, and the file for that recognition contains the order, the report of the adoption agency and the consent, each legalised and translated.
Names, and changes of name
Italian law gives a person one name for life: the forenames and the surname recorded at birth, changed only by a decree of the Prefect or by a court. British law allows a person to change name by use or by deed poll. The two systems meet badly. An Italian citizen who changed name in Britain by deed poll remains, for Italy, the person recorded at birth, and the Italian passport and the records of the comune carry the birth name, whatever the British passport says. A British descendant whose family changed the spelling of the surname in Britain, from Di Giorgio to De George, from Esposito to Exposito, is examined through the chain of documents which connect the two spellings, and the comune transcribes the birth with the name on the British certificate, noting the ancestor’s name as it appears in Italy.
A woman who uses her husband’s surname is recorded in Italy under her birth surname. A certificate issued in the married name is accepted with the marriage certificate which connects the two. A forename anglicised by an immigrant, Giuseppe who became Joseph, Giovanna who became Jane, is the single most common discrepancy in the files we see, and it is resolved with the documents which show the same person under both names: the naturalisation certificate, which usually records the original name, the census, the marriage certificate with the father’s name, the gravestone where nothing else exists. The page on common problems with documents deals with the discrepancies in detail.
Validity in time
Italian certificates of civil status are valid six months under article 41 of Presidential Decree 445/2000, and some consulates apply the same measure to British certificates which prove a current condition, such as a marriage certificate produced for an application by marriage or a police certificate. A birth certificate proves a fact which does not change, and an old one is accepted if the apostille can be placed on it. A certificate produced for a naturalisation or a marriage application should be issued within the six months before the application, and the consulate asks for new certificates issued after the decree for the oath.
A man from Nottingham applies for recognition through his grandmother, born in Molise, who married an Englishman in Nottingham in 1952 and registered as a British citizen in 1961. His file needs her Italian birth certificate from the comune, her marriage certificate in long form with the husband’s details, the Home Office letter which gives the date of her registration, his father’s birth and marriage certificates, and his own birth certificate. The marriage certificate records her as Josephine, the Italian certificate as Giuseppina, and the Home Office letter as Giuseppina Josephine. The three documents together establish that she is one person, and the translation renders each name as it appears in each document, with a note.
Send us the documents you hold and the names as the family uses them. We tell you which certificates are missing, in which form to order them, and which discrepancies must be resolved before the apostille is requested.