parrocchia

Parrocchia is a parish, the local church district, and can also mean the parish church itself. Its priest is the parroco, and its books are the registri parrocchiali, parish registers. The ufficio parrocchiale is the parish office.

For most of central and northern Italy, parish registers are the main record before civil registration took hold in the late 1860s, while the mainland south has civil acts from 1809 and Sicily from 1820. A town may have more than one parish, so find the right one for your family's street or hamlet.