I’m Janet Schiller, an Italian American genealogist, researcher, and teacher with deep family roots in Tuscany.
My father was born in San Giuliano Terme, near Pisa, and much of my own research has centered on the communities, parishes, archives, and families of that area. I have also researched families elsewhere in Italy and worked extensively with Italian civil registration, parish records, archival collections, and the geographic and administrative systems that produced them.
Why Radici?
Radici means “roots” in Italian. But finding our roots requires more than collecting names and dates.
Italian records were created by institutions: comuni, parishes, dioceses, tribunals, military districts, notarial offices, and governments that changed over time. Records may be preserved somewhere quite different from where they were originally created. A successful search often depends on understanding that structure before looking for a name.
That principle is at the heart of this site:
Records are created by systems. To find the records, learn the systems.
My Approach to Research
I hold an Ed.D. from Harvard University and spent approximately thirty-five years as a policy analyst. That academic and professional background taught me to define questions carefully, examine evidence critically, and understand how institutions and systems shape the information they preserve.
I bring the same habits to genealogical research: identify the relevant jurisdiction, follow records through changes in government and custody, and examine the original images rather than relying solely on indexes.
I also believe in looking beyond birth, marriage, and death records. Marriage attachments, miscellaneous civil acts, parish status animarum, military records, notarial documents, fiscal censuses, and other less familiar sources can reveal the stories that basic vital records leave untold.
Teaching Italian Genealogy
I lead the Italian Genealogy Special Interest Group associated with the FamilySearch Center in Kensington, Maryland. Through monthly presentations and case studies, I help researchers understand Italian records, archives, handwriting, geography, and research methods.
I continue to learn through my own family research, work in Italian archives, collaboration with other researchers, and the close study of records that do not always yield their answers easily.
What You’ll Find Here
Radici offers practical guidance for researching Italian families, including:
- finding and using records on Antenati and FamilySearch;
- identifying the correct comune, frazione, parish, diocese, or tribunal;
- understanding how Italian history shaped record creation;
- locating records that have not been indexed or digitized;
- preparing for research in Italian archives and parishes; and
- learning from real cases in which the expected record was incomplete, misleading, or filed somewhere unexpected.
My goal is not simply to tell you where to click. It is to help you understand why records exist where they do—and how to recognize another path when the obvious search fails.
Italian genealogy can be complicated. It can also be extraordinarily rewarding. I hope Radici helps you approach it with greater confidence, curiosity, and persistence.
Welcome. Let’s follow the records back to their roots.
