Italian citizenship through grandmother, missing birth certificate

Question

Below are the documents I need.

1. Your maternal grandmother's birth certificate from Italy, also known as an estratto dell'atto di nascita
2. Your maternal grandfather's birth certificate
3. Your grandparents' marriage certificate (If married outside of Italy, you will need an apostille and a translation into Italian.)
4. Your maternal grandmother's certificate of naturalization OR Italian passport and permanent resident card/green card (Click here if the certificate of naturalization is not available.)
5. Your mother's birth certificate (with apostille and translation)
6. Your father's birth certificate
7. Your parents' marriage certificate (with apostille and translation)
8. Your birth certificate (with apostille and translation)
9. Your marriage certificate, if applicable (with apostille and translation)
10. Your spouse's birth certificate, if applicable
11. Birth certificates for all your children under the age of eighteen, if applicable (with apostille and translation)
12. Any applicable divorce decrees/certificates (with apostille and translation)
13. Death certificates for anyone listed above (with apostille and translation, if for your mother or grandmother)

Now I can get all of these apart from my grandmas birth certificate. She left for the UK when she was 18(born 1935)after that there was a big earthquake in the village she was from and they lost pretty much everything. Will her birth be recorded anywhere else where I can get a copy? She is still alive if I need her to get any of this info.

I also read that I need my grandfathers documents too even if he wasn't born in Italy. But my grandad(deceased) is Polish and was liberated by the British army from a camp in WW2 so the only documents I can get from him are his original alien card when he came to the UK.

None of my grandparents ever became British Citizens and although my mother has never claimed her Italian Citizenship she has never denounced it. My grandma is alive with an Italian passport will that be enough when going to the Italian consulate without her birth certificate or will I be denied? €300 isn't the end of the world being denied but wouldn't be best pleased wasting it.

Answer 1

Even if your grandmother’s civil registration birth at the local registrar’s office (anagrafe) were damaged or destroyed, a copy would have been sent to the procura della repubblica in the provincial capital, in the repository or archive of the tribunale, the district court.

First, find out whether your nona’s village was part of a larger area, where records would have been kept in a nearby town. If it is or was, you may be able to find her records in there. The discrepancy in dates might be explained by when the birth was registered, usually does within several days of birth or baptism. Baptism date is usually part of the civil birth record.

There is also Stato di famiglia, unique to Italy, which is a record of each family which has births, marriages, deaths, emigration, and is updated. These are maintained and updated by the commune.

You can look, for free, in Family Search which does have Italian civil registration historical records from many communes and provinces. Derived from state archives, many cover the time period you need. If not the actual record, an annual index may help narrow your search. (I have no affiliation, used it for family geneology.)