Doing Family Research in Palermo

We were in Palermo over Easter doing some family research. This post can be considered part II of the previous post On-the-Ground Italian Family Research. Let me just breathe a sigh of relief and say that we got everything we needed and everyone we worked with was helpful.

Anagrafe Information

Here is some information about the anagrafe offices (link 1 and link 2). They are in Italian. Unfortunately, they don't tell you the most important thing which is that the office for old records is right across from the main train station, conveniently located. It’s a grayish, formidable looking building with brown signage above the windows saying “Muncipio di Palermo”. During off hours, you can’t really look in any windows because everything is shut up. Normal hours are something like 8:30 to 1:30 (check to confirm). When you enter through a gate on the side of the building (away from the ocean) there are several doors to choose from. One door is the place you pick up previously requested information or things that are already in the computer. It’s the “sportello”. The other door has a security guard inside and that’s where you should go if you need to do research. You want to ask the guard to take you to door #6. It’s just to the left of the elevator past the guard post. Below is a picture of the building with the main train station in the background.


Once inside the door, you meet someone there and you can state what you need. As usual, having all the information on one or more sheets of paper and easy to read will help. Also be prepared to take notes as it will help to record dates and volume/number from the index (more below).

You can get photocopies for just a few cents apiece or you can ask for an extract. The extract might take a day or so to process since the information has to be typed into the computer. Then you can just go to the sportello and have the extract printed out.

Note that the first step the person helping you will take is to consult the indexes. The indexes are listing by date of births, deaths, marriages that list the volume (located elsewhere in the office) where the actual information is. Pictured below is the shelf that contains the index information from the 1800s.


Palermo Cemetery Information

There are four main cemeteries in Palermo (that we know of): Capuchin (location), Santa Maria de Gesù (location), Sant’Orsola (location), and Rotoli (location). We found staff on hand always to answer our questions, so stop at the main office (near the main entrance) and begin by asking someone to check the records. You can do this at all four cemeteries discussed here.

The Capuchin Catacombs is a huge tourist attraction because of the mummies in the basement – so to speak. The entrance to the touristy part is different but close to the main entrance to the cemetery. Just inside the gate to the right is an office where you can ask someone to look in the records. You need date of death and name. The Capuchin cemetery is just east of the city center. You can walk to it from the main train station in about 35 minutes.

Sant’Orsola is not as much of a tourist attraction, though I think there is a church inside (Santo Spirito) that is listed in some of the guide books. Again, you can walk from the central train station to the cemetery in about 20 minutes. A plan of the cemetery is shown below.


Santa Maria de Gesù is located quite a bit south of the city. Take a taxi or a bus(#210 from bay #2 in front of the main train station – for more info on buses see http://www.amat.pa.it/).

Rotoli is located quite a bit north of the city. Take a taxi or a bus (#139 from bay #1 in front of the main train station). This is the largest of the cemeteries and the most likely place to look. A plan of the cemetery is shown below. The sad thing here is that a fire wiped out all records before 1933 – this ultimately sank our search because we were looking for someone before this date. However, not is all is lost, because in most cases you can search for a related family member who died after 1933 and then use this to help locate the ancestor who died before 1933.

Note that the main office for the cemetery is where Via Papa Sergio turns into Via Vergine Maria (a truly miraculous kind of conversion :-)).

My Next Brunelleschi House?

Recently I had a tour of the Old Sacristy designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446) and started thinking of his designs. Also, I did a mockup of Santo Spirito with the hopes of trying to learn something about the proportions. I got to thinking, why not build a Brunelleschi house? Very simple design based around a courtyard that could be covered or not. If covered, maybe something like his Pazzi Chapel dome? Of course, the color scheme would be white and grey as is typical in these spaces. 

One of the square building blocks shown above, a side aisle bay, in Santo Spirito measures 11 braccia on a side which is about 6.42 meteres or 21 feet. All other measurements in the church are related to this basic measurement. (The graphics were created in PowerPoint.)

Medicis 1420 - 1520

As part of my research for the British Institute course: The Medici: Power and the Art of a Renaissance Dynasty that I’m taking, I created this graphic to try and see if a visualization of the first family of Florence can be summarized neatly. It helps, but don’t think it quite captures everything. Oh well, it was fun trying. (This graphic was created in Powerpoint.)

San Lorenzo Medici Tombs

The Medici are buried all over the San Lorenzo complex. Unfortunately you can’t buy one ticket and see them all. The church and Old Sacristy are one ticket and the Chapel of the Princes and the New Sacristy are another ticket. You must leave the church and walk around to the Chapel of Princes entrance. The Old Sacristy is Brunelleschi’s doing and the New Sacristy is Michelangelo’s doing (or at least partial doing since he never quite finished). The diagram below was created in, gulp, Powerpoint. I’m experimenting with different ways of presenting the information. I think the information is correct as far as I know. I’m doing this as part of my research for the British Institute course: The Medici: Power and the Art of a Renaissance Dynasty.

Some Gardens and Parks in Palermo

We were both surprised by how well the gardens in Palermo we did see seemed to be taken care of, with attention to trimming and design. We did not visit all the green spaces but hit the major ones. All the ones listed below, except the Orto Botanico, are free to visit. Here is a good site that summarizes gardens of Palermo.



Villa Bonanno – This green space is just east (toward the ocean) of Palazzo Reale on Via Vittorio Emanuele. This space is full of palms and has some old Roman ruins in it that hardly anyone knows are there.



Villa Garibaldi – Not sure where the Villa is, but this green space has some huge banyan trees in it that make it quite shady. Set your navigators to Piazza Marina to find this park.



Villa Giulia - This green space is adjacent to the botannical garden and is close to the sea on Via Lincoln. It’s a nice little retreat from the sometimes endless pavement of the city. Across from the park are two pasticcerias for a quick coffee or snack: Bar RosaNero and Bar Touring. The park closes at dusk.



Villa Whitaker – You can tour the Art Nouveau Whitaker (or Malifitano) Villa for 3 Euros or so, or you can enjoy the garden for free. A bit overgrown here and there, it has some great plant specimens the builder of the villa, Joseph Whitaker, had collected over the years. The Villa and the park is located on Via Dante 167, heading away from the harbor. Piazza Indipendenza – This green space is just west (away from the harbor) of Palazzo Reale on Via Vittoria Emanuele. This space has a merry-go-round and seems to be a more frequented spot by locals going to or coming from somewhere.

Orto Botanico – This botanical garden is located near Villa Guila on Via Lincoln. Of course it’s late March so not much is in bloom but we were impressed with scientific layout of the garden and the good labeling of specimens. We were surprised by the number of Chorisia speciosa (false kapok) tree and the trunk shapes. From this photo you can see that the trunk shapes can get quite interesting.

Terrazza a Mare – This green space is not what I would say is a plant lovers paradise, but it is one of the main promenade spots on the weekends. Young and old congregate on this huge stretch of land by the ocean.

Palermo Modern Art Museum

First and foremost, the Galleria D’Arte Moderna Palermo (or the Modern Art Museum of Palermo) has changed location. The old location was by the Politeama, clear across town. The new location is Piazza Sant’Anna (via Sant’Anna 21) which is near the intersection of via Roma and via Vittorio Emanuele. The new location is beautiful and the collection was a pleasure to visit. (It happened to be free this week – some national week of free museums or something like that.) The gallery showcases the works of Sicilian arts. We especially appreciated the work of Francesco Lojacono.

(On the brochure cover is one of the several versions of The Sin by Von Stuck.)