Provincia di Brindisi
Brindisi's two civil transfers have different inventory status
Brindisi's civil status arrived in two deliveries, forty-three years apart, and they are not in the same condition. The transfer of 1959, covering 1809-1887, is ordered and inventoried. The transfer of 2002, covering 1888-1960, is still being inventoried. Both exist and both are held; only one can be searched quickly. Knowing which side of 1887 an event falls on tells you what kind of request to make.
Explore the comuni
Comuni in Provincia di Brindisi
Civil registers were kept by the comune, not the province. If one of these is your family's, start there.
Where the records are
What Archivio di Stato di Brindisi holds
The fond is the Stato civile of the comuni of the province of Brindisi, 1809-1960: the second original copy of birth, marriage, citizenship and death registers, together with atti diversi, compiled by the comuni and deposited each year with the competent Tribunal.
It reached the archive in two transfers with different handling. The first, in 1959, covering 1809-1887, is ordered and inventoried. The second, in 2002, covering 1888-1960, is still being inventoried. For the later half, expect to describe what you want rather than cite it, and expect the answer to take longer.
The comuni are listed by the archive, with three qualifications worth repeating: Cisternino from 1866, Fasano from 1866, and San Michele Salentino from 1912, previously a frazione of San Vito dei Normanni. Brindisi includes Tuturano.
Levy records are in the Ufficio di leva di Brindisi, classes 1871-1944. The fond arrived partly by transfer from the Archivio di Stato di Lecce and partly from the provincial levy office at the Distretto Militare di Lecce — a reminder that until 1927 this was Lecce's territory and its paperwork followed Lecce's institutions.
Only part of the fond is digitised on the portal, which tracks the inventory position rather than the date.
Continue your research
The 1809-1887 half is inventoried; 1888-1960 is not yet. Before 1927 this was Terra d'Otranto, administered from Lecce.
Archivio di Stato di Brindisi on Antenati
The archive's own statement of its two transfers and its comuni list.
antenati.cultura.gov.itPortale Antenati archive directory
Every participating State Archive and what each says it holds.
antenati.cultura.gov.itAn archive record and an online family tree will often disagree. Why family trees disagree, and what settles it →
Your roots
Inventoried, or not yet
The fond covers 1809 to 1960 — the second original copy of birth, marriage, citizenship and death registers, plus atti diversi, compiled by the comuni and deposited each year with the competent Tribunal.
Its two halves behave differently. The 1959 transfer (1809-1887) is ordered and inventoried, so a specific volume can be identified and requested. The 2002 transfer (1888-1960) is still being inventoried, which usually means access is possible but slower, and that a precise citation cannot be given in advance.
The archive also publishes its comuni, and the list carries dates that matter: Cisternino from 1866, Fasano from 1866, and San Michele Salentino from 1912, previously a frazione of San Vito. A San Michele family before 1912 is recorded under San Vito dei Normanni, not under its own name. Brindisi itself includes the Tuturano frazione.
The full list: Brindisi with Tuturano, Carovigno, Ceglie Messapica, Cellino San Marco, Cisternino, Erchie, Fasano, Francavilla Fontana, Latiano, Mesagne, Oria, Ostuni, Sandonaci, San Michele Salentino, San Pancrazio Salentino, San Pietro Vernotico, San Vito dei Normanni, Torchiarolo, Torre Santa Susanna and Villa Castelli.
The province
Terra d'Otranto, divided in 1927
The Province of Brindisi's own history states that it was instituted by R.D.L. 2 January 1927 no. 1, its legal life beginning on 12 January 1927. Before that the territory belonged to Terra d'Otranto, the great southern province administered from Lecce, which was divided that year into Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto.
That division is the reason a Brindisino search reaches back into Lecce's material. For the nineteenth century the province did not exist, and Terra d'Otranto is the name the records were made under.
Brindisi's own significance is older than any of it. It was the terminus of the Via Appia — the column at the head of the harbour still marks the end of the road from Rome — and the principal embarkation port for the eastern Mediterranean for two thousand years. Crusaders sailed from here; so did the mail to India after the Suez Canal opened, by the Valigia delle Indie overland route that ran through Brindisi from the 1870s.
In September 1943, after the armistice, the king and Badoglio fled here and Brindisi served briefly as the capital of the Kingdom of the South, the only part of Italy under Allied and royal control.
The hinterland is different: Ostuni, Ceglie and Cisternino on the Murgia edge belong to the Valle d'Itria world of trulli and smallholdings, while Mesagne, Oria and Francavilla are plain towns of the Salento with a Messapian past beneath them.
Culture & traditions
Port, Murgia and olive plain
The province divides between the port, the white hill towns and the olive plain, and the three had different histories and different emigrations.
Brindisi the port lived by movement — shipping, the naval base, and from the 1870s the imperial mail route to the East. Its families include maritime trades that scarcely appear inland.
The Murgia edge — Ostuni, the città bianca, with Cisternino and Ceglie Messapica — is limewashed hill country on the rim of the Valle d'Itria, smallholding rather than estate, and socially closer to Bari province than to the Salento plain.
The plain around Mesagne, Latiano, San Pietro Vernotico and San Pancrazio is olive and vine country on deep red soil, with some of the oldest monumental olive trees in the Mediterranean. Its social structure was one of large holdings and day labour, and its emigration was correspondingly heavy.
Oria retains a Swabian castle and the memory of a significant medieval Jewish community; Francavilla Fontana has its Imperiali palace and a Holy Week of some elaboration.
The Messapian substrate is unusually visible here: Oria, Mesagne, Ceglie and Carovigno all sit on Messapian sites, and the pre-Roman identity of the Salento is part of how people here describe themselves.
Province established
1927
Comuni covered
20
Historic names
Terra d'Otranto · Provincia di Lecce (to 1927) · Circondario di Brindisi · Valle d'Itria · Messapia
Languages & dialects
Italian · Salentino settentrionale · Brindisino · Murgian varieties at Ostuni and Cisternino
Traditions
Holy Week at Francavilla Fontana · the Valle d'Itria trulli · Ostuni's white city · monumental olive cultivation · the Via Appia terminus
The Province of Brindisi's own history states that it was instituted by R.D.L. 2 January 1927 no. 1 and its legal life began 12 January 1927.
Visit the province
Going to the archive in Brindisi
Place the event either side of 1887. Before it, the fond is inventoried and a precise request is possible. After it, the material is held but still being catalogued, and the enquiry should describe the comune, the year and the act type rather than cite a volume.
Check the comune dates: Cisternino and Fasano from 1866, San Michele Salentino from 1912 — before which the family is in San Vito dei Normanni.
For anything before 1927, remember the territory was Terra d'Otranto and administered from Lecce; the Lecce archive is worth asking in parallel.
Write ahead saying which half of the fond you expect to need.
What to see
Brindisi harbour — the column marking the end of the Via Appia.
Ostuni — the white city on the Murgia rim, above the olive plain.
Ceglie Messapica and Cisternino — the Valle d'Itria edge, trulli and smallholdings.
Oria — the Swabian castle and the medieval Jewish quarter.
Mesagne and Francavilla Fontana — Messapian foundations under Salentine plain towns.
The monumental olives — among the oldest cultivated trees in the Mediterranean.
Not yet in the collection
Want to see Provincia di Brindisi represented?
Requests are how we decide what comes next — every one is read, and the places people ask for are the places that get made.