Shout-out of the day: Italian Genealogical Group

I have not a drop of Italian blood in me, but I have to give mad props, again, to the Italian Genealogical Group for having been an invaluable resource to me in my family history research. You can see where their work started, what with all the Italian immigrants who came through/ended up in New York City, but for anybody who has late 19th century and/or early 20th century family history in New York City (that would be all five boroughs), you are doing yourself a great disservice by not visiting their website. While you can't find actual records or record information on their website, the group's many wonderful volunteers have put in countless hours indexing the vital record holdings for the city's municipal archives. That means that when visiting the archives in lower Manhattan or sending away for them from the archives' website, you save both time and money by already having a spelling (for those of us whose families loved to spell their names every which way imagineable under he sun) AND a certificate number.

I especially wanted to give them a shout-out today because as I've been going through my laundry list of records I need, I found in their index two certificates I have been searching for for YEARS - the birth certificate of my great grandfather, Frederick Stutzmann (listed under Fred Stutzmann) and the death certificate of HIS grandfather, Peter Stutzmann, who I could never prove emigrated or died in New York City instead of his native Germany, even though I had somewhat reliable information saying he died in New York on January 10, 1891. Well, thanks to a search just 5 minutes ago on IGG's site, I found a Peter Stutzmna who died in Brooklyn on January 10, 1892. I can't know for sure yet that this is MY Peter, but my gut is telling me that it is, and when it comes to genealogy, my gut is always, always right.

You can find the Italian Genealogical Group's website here.