Provincia di Terni
Terni holds parish registers from 1559
Terni's oldest named-family records begin in 1559 and they are held publicly, not by the church. Registri parrocchiali 1559-1865, from the city and circondario parishes, were deposited by the Comune — the consequence of Pepoli's decree of 1860, which requisitioned Umbria's parish registers into communal civil-status offices. Alongside them sits the stato civile transferred by the Tribunale di Terni, 1861-1900.
Explore the comuni
Comuni in Provincia di Terni
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 Terni holds
Two holdings, and the older one is the remarkable one.
Registri parrocchiali 1559-1865, deposited by the Comune, drawn from the city and circondario parishes. These are church registers in state custody, the direct consequence of the Pepoli decree of 1860 requisitioning Umbria's parish books into the communal civil-status offices. Three hundred and six years of baptisms, marriages and burials, publicly held.
The city's own historic municipal archive holds the requisitioned series directly, with births from 1559, marriages from 1730 and deaths from 1845.
Stato civile transferred by the Tribunale di Terni, 1861-1900. Note that Umbria joined the Kingdom of Sardinia by plebiscite in 1860, so Italian civil registration here begins in the early 1860s rather than in 1866 as in the Veneto — verify the actual first surviving year for the comune rather than assuming a regional date.
The archive keeps a section at Orvieto.
Two custody points that cross modern boundaries. Because Terni province was created only in 1927, pre-1927 provincial material for these comuni may be at Perugia or Spoleto. And the matricular rolls for the classes of 1876-1932 are held at Viterbo, in Lazio — as are Orvieto's.
The portal records the archive as fully digitised, parish registers included.
Continue your research
Umbria's parish registers were requisitioned into communal custody in 1860. Terni's reach back to 1559.
Archivio di Stato di Terni on Antenati
The archive's own statement of its parish and tribunal fonds.
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
The church register that became a public record
Umbria is the one Italian region where the parish register was converted into state property by political act. Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, extraordinary commissioner after the annexation, decreed on 31 October 1860 that parish registers be requisitioned into the communal civil-status offices.
At Terni the result is the fond Registri parrocchiali 1559-1865, deposited by the Comune, drawn from the city and circondario parishes — three centuries of baptisms, marriages and burials in the state archive rather than the curia.
With it sits the stato civile transferred by the Tribunale di Terni, 1861-1900.
So the join here is at 1860-1865, where the requisitioned parish books and the new civil series briefly overlap. Before that, the parish register is the record — and it is here. After it, the tribunal series is.
The city's own historic municipal archive holds the requisitioned series directly, with births from 1559, marriages from 1730 and deaths from 1845 — a public vital-record run beginning three centuries before national civil registration.
The province
Papal Umbria, steel, and a province from 1927
SIAS records the Province of Terni as existing from 1927, instituted by Royal Decree 2 January 1927 no. 1, separating southern territory from Perugia. That is recent: for the whole of the nineteenth century this was Perugian or, before 1860, papal — the Delegazione di Spoleto.
So nineteenth-century material for southern Umbrian comuni may be catalogued under Perugia or under Spoleto rather than under Terni. Orvieto is the sharpest case: its pre-1927 provincial records lead to Perugia, its later conscription to Terni, and its military matricular rolls to Viterbo, in another region entirely. Terni's own matricular rolls, for the classes of 1876-1932, are likewise at Viterbo.
Terni itself is an industrial city and has been since the 1880s, when the Acciaierie — the steelworks — were established to supply the navy, exploiting the hydro power of the Cascata delle Marmore, the Roman-cut waterfall on the Velino. That made the city a magnet for workers from across Umbria and beyond, and it also made it a target: Terni was among the most heavily bombed cities in Italy in 1943-44, with the centre largely destroyed and municipal records lost.
The province also holds Narni, Amelia and Orvieto, old hill towns whose histories are quite separate from the steel city's.
Culture & traditions
The steel city, the hill towns and the Valnerina
The province divides between an industrial centre and a set of much older towns that never industrialised.
Terni is a worker city, and its social history is unlike the rest of Umbria: a labour movement from the 1880s, heavy bombing, and post-war reconstruction. Its patron San Valentino — bishop of Terni in the third century — has given the city a modern international identity.
Orvieto sits on its tufa cliff, with the cathedral, the Pozzo di San Patrizio and a warren of caves and cellars beneath; it was a papal refuge and an independent commune before that, and its records are correspondingly deep.
Narni and Amelia are hill towns on the old Via Flaminia and Amerina, Amelia with polygonal walls that predate Rome.
The Valnerina to the east — Ferentillo, Arrone, Polino — is a narrow mountain valley with the abbey of San Pietro in Valle and a strong transhumance past toward Norcia and the Sibillini.
The Marmore falls, cut by the Romans in 271 BC to drain the Rieti plain, were a Grand Tour destination and later the power source for the steelworks — the same water doing two quite different jobs two thousand years apart.
Sharecropping shaped the rural comuni as it did across Umbria, so parish identity matters more than comune identity for pre-industrial families.
Province established
1927
Comuni covered
33
Historic names
Stato Pontificio · Delegazione di Spoleto · Provincia dell'Umbria (1860) · Provincia di Perugia (to 1927) · Circondario di Orvieto
Languages & dialects
Italian · Ternano · Orvietano · Lazial influence to the south and west
Traditions
San Valentino of Terni · the Marmore falls · the Acciaierie and its labour movement · Orvieto's underground city · Valnerina transhumance
SIAS records the Province of Terni as existing from 1927 and states that it was instituted by Royal Decree 2 January 1927 no. 1.
Visit the province
Going to the archive in Terni
Start with the requisitioned parish registers rather than the curia. In Umbria the parish book may be a public record, and here it reaches back to 1559.
For anything before 1927, check Perugia and Spoleto as well — this province did not exist, and its comuni were filed under those.
For Orvieto, expect a three-way split: provincial records at Perugia, conscription at Terni, matricular rolls at Viterbo. Terni's own rolls for 1876-1932 are also at Viterbo.
Where a twentieth-century municipal record is missing, check the date against the bombing of 1943-44. Ask about the Orvieto section if the family is from that side.
What to see
The Cascata delle Marmore — cut by the Romans in 271 BC, later the steelworks' power.
Orvieto — the cathedral on the tufa cliff, and the Pozzo di San Patrizio.
Narni and Amelia — hill towns on the Flaminia and the Amerina, with pre-Roman walls.
The Valnerina — Ferentillo, Arrone and the abbey of San Pietro in Valle.
Terni — the steel city, its labour history and the bombing of 1943-44.
Carsulae — the Roman town on the Flaminia, abandoned and excavated.
Not yet in the collection
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