Provincia di Taranto
Crispiano and Statte appear in three series
Taranto's two civil fonds cover the same thirty-two localities — preunitario 1809-1861 and italiano 1862-1900 — with one complication the archive spells out. Crispiano and Statte were frazioni of other comuni until 1919 and 1992 respectively, and after 1866 they partly share their parent's registers and partly have their own. For those two places three series exist, and a search has to check all three.
Explore the comuni
Comuni in Provincia di Taranto
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 Taranto holds
Two civil fonds covering the same thirty-two localities.
Stato civile preunitario, 1809-1861. Stato civile italiano, 1862-1900, deposited by the Tribunal of Taranto.
The localities are named by the archive and include places that are no longer independent comuni — Monacizzo, San Crispieri, Santa Maria della Camera, Talsano, Uggiano Montefusco — so a nineteenth-century record may be filed under a name that no modern map carries.
The archive is explicit about one case. After 1866 the two frazioni of Crispiano and Statte — autonomous comuni only from 1919 and 1992 respectively — partly hold registers relating to both localities and partly hold independent registers, with the consequence that three series exist for those places. For a Crispiano or Statte family the correct approach is to check the parent comune's registers and the independent ones together, rather than assuming a clean separation at the date of autonomy.
Because the province was created in 1923 out of Lecce, anything before that date may also be catalogued under Terra d'Otranto and held at Lecce; the joint Distretto militare di Lecce e di Taranto, classes 1844-1925, covers both provinces' men.
The portal marks digitisation Completa for both fonds.
Continue your research
Crispiano and Statte have three series. Before 1923 the territory was Terra d'Otranto, held at Lecce.
Archivio di Stato di Taranto on Antenati
The archive's own statement of its localities and the Crispiano-Statte case.
antenati.cultura.gov.itArchivio di Stato di Lecce on Antenati
Where the pre-1923 Terra d'Otranto material is held.
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
Thirty-two localities, and two that split late
The archive names what it holds. Stato civile preunitario, 1809-1861, covers: Avetrana, Carosino, Castellaneta, Faggiano, Fragagnano, Ginosa, Grottaglie, Laterza, Lizzano, Manduria, Martina Franca, Maruggio, Massafra, Monacizzo, Monteiasi, Montemesola, Monteparano, Mottola, Palagianello, Palagiano, Pulsano, Roccaforzata, San Marzano, San Crispieri, San Giorgio, Santa Maria della Camera, Sava, Statte-Crispiano, Talsano, Taranto, Torricella and Uggiano Montefusco. The Tribunal of Taranto has deposited Stato civile italiano, 1862-1900, for the same localities.
Note the names that are no longer comuni: Monacizzo, San Crispieri, Santa Maria della Camera, Talsano, Uggiano Montefusco were absorbed into neighbours. A record under one of them is filed under that name, not the modern one.
And note Statte-Crispiano, listed as a single entry. Crispiano became autonomous in 1919 and Statte only in 1992; after 1866 the two partly share registers with their parent and partly keep independent books, so three series exist for those places. Check all of them rather than one.
The province
Provincia dello Ionio, and a naval city
The Province of Taranto was instituted in 1923 by separating the Taranto district from Lecce, and it was initially called Provincia dello Ionio. That original name appears in documents of the 1920s and is worth knowing.
Before 1923 this was Terra d'Otranto, administered from Lecce — which is why the Lecce archive is the other place to ask for anything earlier, and why the Distretto militare di Lecce e di Taranto served both.
Taranto itself was Taras, a Spartan colony founded in the eighth century BC and the richest city of Magna Graecia; its museum holds the gold work that trade produced. The modern city was transformed by a single decision: in 1889 the Arsenale, the naval yard, opened, and Taranto became Italy's principal military port. Population grew from around 25,000 to over 60,000 within two decades, drawn from across the province and from the whole south, and the Borgo Nuovo was built across the canal from the old island city.
The Ilva steelworks, opened in 1965, repeated the process on a larger scale and reshaped the city again.
The hinterland is quite separate: the Murgia at Martina Franca, Laterza and Castellaneta with its ravines, and the Salentine plain toward Manduria, which is Primitivo country.
Culture & traditions
Two seas, the gravine and the Murgia
Taranto sits between two seas — the Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo — and the inner one shaped its oldest trade. Mussel farming in the Mar Piccolo is documented for centuries and remains a family business passed down generations; the cozze tarantine are a civic identity as much as a product.
The city's Holy Week is among the most elaborate in Italy: the perdoni processing in hooded confraternity habit at the pace called the nazzicata, over two days and nights.
The gravine — deep limestone ravines at Massafra, Laterza, Castellaneta, Ginosa — hold rock-cut churches and dwellings on the Matera pattern, and their villages lived half underground into the modern period.
Martina Franca on the Murgia belongs to the Valle d'Itria world of trulli and smallholdings, and has a baroque centre and a long-established festival; its capocollo is a protected product.
Manduria and the plain grow Primitivo on bush vines, and the wine trade there is old.
The arsenal and then the steelworks made the city a destination for internal migration from the 1890s onward, so a Tarantino family of the 1920s is frequently a provincial or Lucanian family of the 1880s.
Province established
1923
Comuni covered
29
Historic names
Terra d'Otranto · Provincia dello Ionio · Circondario di Taranto · Valle d'Itria · Murgia tarantina
Languages & dialects
Italian · Tarantino · Murgian varieties at Martina Franca · Salentino toward Manduria
Traditions
the perdoni and the nazzicata at Holy Week · Mar Piccolo mussel farming · Primitivo di Manduria · Martina Franca capocollo · the gravine settlements
The Province of Taranto was instituted in 1923 by separation of the Taranto district from Lecce; it was initially officially called Provincia dello Ionio.
Visit the province
Going to the archive in Taranto
Check the locality list first, and check it against the old names. A family from Talsano or Uggiano Montefusco is filed under those, not under the comune that absorbed them.
For Crispiano or Statte, expect three series and ask for all of them. This is the archive's own caution and it is the commonest source of a false negative here.
For anything before 1923, ask Lecce in parallel — the province did not exist and the territory was Terra d'Otranto.
For military records, the district is Lecce and Taranto jointly, so a Tarantino man may be filed at Lecce. Name the locality and the period when you write.
What to see
The Mar Piccolo — the inner sea and its centuries-old mussel farms.
The gravine — Massafra, Laterza, Castellaneta and Ginosa, with rock-cut churches.
Martina Franca — Valle d'Itria baroque, trulli country and capocollo.
Manduria — Primitivo bush vines and the Messapian walls.
Taranto old city — the island, the castle and the museum's Magna Graecia gold.
The Arsenale — the naval yard of 1889 that doubled the city's population.
Not yet in the collection
Want to see Provincia di Taranto represented?
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