*This is an updated current tutorial to the previously posted content titled Pagine Bianche – Italian White Pages .*

A great resource for looking up Italian surnames and locating people in Italy is to use the on line Pagine Bianche [White Pages].  This telephone directory also links to the Pagine Gialle or the Yellow Pages so you can locate businesses.

There are a few ways to use the site. The first is to click on cerca per nome [search for name], then plug in the surname in the larger search bar directly below it.  You can also add the city, town or region in the adjacent search bar. Once done click trova and a list of people with that surname will appear who have listed numbers.  People with unlisted or private numbers won’t appear of course.  Phone numbers registered to females will appear with or be listed under their maiden names.

You can also search using a reverse look up if you happen to have a phone number but don’t know who it is.  Highlight the link that says cerca per numero [search phone number], insert the number and click trova.  If the number is a listed one it should show up.

Lastly you can search using the cerca per indirizzo [search by address] feature.  Just input the address,  click trova and see what pops up.

It also has some useful other features such as Ricerche più frequent – frequently searched numbers and Cognomi più cercati – surnames most searched which is rather interesting.

In any case, no matter how you choose to use the site it’s definitely a great resource to many searching for potential family in Italy.

A quick search on Searching the Enhanced Ellis Island Database in One Step using Natale with no variation returns over 2300 persons with the surname arrived through Ellis Island between 1892-1924. By removing the letter e from the end of the name and searching again, the returns are over 3400. By doing a search using it as a first name, which does yield some variations, almost 15,000 hits are returned!
Using Gens-Italia, we find the surname is present in over 956 towns with the highest concentration in the regions of Campania and Lombardy. And of course, if we use Pagine Bianche [the Italian White Pages] to search the surname, we find that 3317 people are listed.

Let’s try the same thing with Grazia. Doing a quick search on Grazia, again with no variation, we find that 3282 immigrants with the surname entered through the New York port. Gens Italia returns the name is still present in 158 towns with the highest concentration in Emilia Romagna while there are only 423 persons listed in the Italian White pages.

The less popular Bifano still returns 119 hits on Ellis Island, found in 72 towns in Italy and 158 hits on the Italian White Pages.

As a side note – while extracting records from various towns in Reggio Calabria, I often noticed that the first names Natale and Natalina were given to persons born either near or on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I also found that these births, and many births which took place in late December were not registered until January the following year so my advice is that if you are looking for someone named Natale and are having difficulty locating a birth record, try looking in the months of December and January.

Name Meaning and History – Bifano

Southern Italian: from the medieval personal name Epifanio, ultimately from Greek Epiphanios, a derivative of epiphainesthai ‘to appear’, a name typically given to children born on 6th January, with reference to the Christian festival of the Epiphany, which commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the Magi.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

Name Meaning – Grazia

Italian form of Grace.

Source: A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192800507

This post is dedicated to my good friend “Biff” and his family who I now consider a part of my very special Gente family. God Bless and Happy Holidays.

For an updated tutorial on how to use this site see Pagine Bianche – Italian White Pages Updated . 

A great resource for looking up Italian surnames and locating people in Italy is to use the on line Pagine Bianche (White Pages).  This telephone directory also links to the Pagine Gialle or the Yellow Pages so you can locate businesses.

There are a few ways to use the site. The first is to click on ricerca, then plug in the surname and or address in chi/cosa and the comune(town, city or province) name in dove if known. Another way to use the site is to click on ricercha speciale and use it to do a reverse look up if you know a phone number but don’t know who it’s registered too.

No matter how you choose to use the site it’s definitely worth checking out.