US hometown ladder

Most Italian-American lines touch US records before you can order the right comune copy. Atto’s find plan opens Ellis Island helpers, federal indexes, and local databases with names and years pre-filled — you search and log in as yourself. Atto never scrapes these sites.

Why US records first

Ship manifests and naturalization papers often carry the exact comune spelling, birth date, and father’s name you need for Antenati and comune requests. Skipping the US side leads to wrong towns and wasted ordering fees.

Work top-down: immigration arrival → census and city directories → naturalization → vital records in the state where they lived.

Steve Morse / Ellis Island

Atto may link to Steve Morse’s Ellis Island tools and the official passenger search — better fuzzy matching for transcribed names than typing blindly into a single box.

Look for: last residence (often the comune), age, marital status, contact in the US, and traveling companions (siblings reveal parent names). Save manifest details to Inbox before you jump to Italy.

Naturalization

Declaration of intention and petition files can list birthplace, arrival date, and witnesses. Post-1906 federal naturalizations are especially rich; pre-1906 may be county-level only.

Order from the National Archives, USCIS genealogy program, or county clerk depending on year and place. Atto tracks what you ordered in the checklist — it does not submit FOIA or genealogy requests for you.

WWI & WWII draft cards

Draft registration cards (WWI especially) often list birth date, town in Italy, and next of kin. FamilySearch and subscription sites index many of them; Atto opens a filtered FamilySearch pointer when your note includes a birth year.

Treat indexes as clues — open the image and transcribe what you actually see.

SS-5 (Social Security application)

The SS-5 form behind a Social Security number can list parents’ names and birthplace. The SSA releases numident extracts under FOIA rules for deceased individuals.

Atto may include an SSA FOIA pointer in the find plan. You file the request yourself; full SSNs stay out of Atto chat exports and never belong in Discord.

USCIS genealogy program

USCIS holds naturalization and alien-registration files not always at NARA. Their genealogy program is index-first, then paid record copies — slow but sometimes the only path for mid-century arrivals.

Use manifest and census dates to narrow the index before you pay for a file.

IGG NYC (Italian Genealogical Group)

The Italian Genealogical Group indexes New York City vital and naturalization records — essential for NYC borough lines. Atto links to their database search when your note mentions New York City or borough names.

IGG hits give certificate numbers you can order from NYC Municipal Archives or Vital Records — another human step Atto does not automate.

Back to Italy

Once you have a comune and year from the US ladder, rebuild your find plan and open Antenati search-registry links. Remember: a scan proves the line; a copia integrale from the comune is separate filing-grade paperwork.

Commercial trees: FamilySearch & Ancestry.

Video walkthrough

Video walkthrough coming soon.