Paese is a research platform for Americans exploring Italian ancestry and pursuing dual citizenship. It helps users connect family history to the Italian places and records that may support their research, bringing together information on 7,900 comuni, or towns and villages, across the country’s 20 regions. Users can search for an ancestral village, including places with historical name changes, and find population information and details about the State Archive holding civil records for each town.

For those unsure where their family originated, surname searches show a cognome’s possible origins, the comuni where it is concentrated, and how many people with that name arrived in the United States. Paese also offers access to more than two million Italian passenger records from 1830 to 1912, alongside regional emigration statistics covering 1876 to 2014. Its guides address citizenship eligibility and ancestry research, while the Sagoma daily game introduces Italian provinces through their silhouettes.

Paese provides research tools and information; it is not a law firm and does not offer legal advice