Genealogy Video Tutorials

Below are some video tutorials I made to help you with your Trentino genealogy research.

TUTORIAL. Exporting & Creating Spreadsheets from Nati in Trentino Website (Aug 2020)

From genealogist Lynn Serafinn, https://trentinogenealogy.com Nati in Trentino is a free, searchable online database of births in Trentino between 1815 and 1923, created by the Diocesan Archives of Trento. The The recently updated version of the website enables you to EXPORT results from your online search to a CSV file. In this 17-minute video tutorial, I will show you how to export a list from the website, how to convert the raw data into columns, and how to organise it so you can start to create a customised database for your own genealogical research. NOTE: You will need Microsoft Excel in order to do what I show you in the video.

TUTORIAL. How to Use the NEW Nati in Trentino Website (June 2020)

The Autonomous Province of Trento has JUST launched the newly revamped version of their website 'Nati in Trentino', a free, searchable online database of births in Trentino between 1815 and 1923. This NEW search engine is MUCH more powerful, and useful to genealogists. The search features are much more flexible, and you can sort and download the data. In this 8-minute tutorial, I show you what it can do, and how to use it, even if you don't understand Italian.

Trento Cemetery - Tips from Genealogist Lynn Serafinn (July 2018)

A walk through the historical 'monumental' cemetery of the city of Trento, in Trentino-Alto Adige in northern Italy. I also offer some tips for how to combine what you find in Trentino cemeteries (not just this one) with the online database called 'Nati in Trentino' to bring depth to your genealogical research.

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Article Library

CLOZ in Val di Non: History, Parish Records, Local Surnames
Decanato of Trento: Parishes, Curates and Parish Registers
Trento in the 1800s. Frazioni, Occupations, Surnames
Trento – The City and Surnames Before the Year 1600
Trentino Valleys, Parishes and People. A Guide for Genealogists.
Not Just a Nickname: Understanding Your Family Soprannome
Kissing Cousins: Marital Dispensations, Consanguinity, Affinity
Without Prejudice. Honouring All the Heroes in Our Families
DNA Ethnicity Reports. Who You Are Vs. What They SAY You Are
Ethnicity Vs. Cultural Identity. Trentino, Tyrolean, Italian?
Why DNA Tests Are NO Substitute for Genealogical Research
DNA Tests, Genealogy, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity
How Cemeteries Can Help Grow Your Family Tree
Was One of Your Trentino Ancestors a Notary?
Keeping Our Ancestors Alive: Reflections on the Day of the Dead
Genealogical Breadcrumbs: Notes, Sources & Reviewing Research
How the WRONG Information Ends Up in Your Family Tree
What Our Ancestors’ Deaths Can Teach Us About Their Lives
Guide to Genealogical Research at the Archdiocese of Trento
Preparing for Research: Using Microfilms for Family History
Searching Online for 19th & 20th Century Trentini Ancestors
Parishes, Parish Records & Genealogy Resources for Trentino
The Science of Finding Your Female Ancestors from Trentino
How Much Do You REALLY Know About Your Ancestors’ Names?
What’s in a Name? A Short Tutorial on Trentini Surnames
Welcome to Trentino Genealogy by Lynn Serafinn

Genealogy Tutorials

TUTORIAL. Exporting & Creating Spreadsheets from Nati in Trentino Website (Aug 2020)

TUTORIAL. How to Use the NEW Nati in Trentino Website (June 2020)

Trento Cemetery - Tips from Genealogist Lynn Serafinn (July 2018)

Filo’ Friday Genealogy Podcasts

Filo’ Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (7 Aug 2020). ‘Families Who Really Got Around!’

Many of our Trentino ancestors tended to stay in one place, sometimes for many centuries. But SOME Trentino families really 'got around'! Long before the age of mass immigration in the 19th century, certain families migrated to many different places within the province. In this podcast, we'll explore the migration of 4 Trentino families, who all have a connection with a village called Fiavé in Val Giudicarie. But the thing is...NONE of them were actually FROM Fiavé. Which families will I discuss? Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (26 June 2020). "You KNOW You’re Cousins IF…"

Is there a way to KNOW you are related to someone who has the same surname in their family tree, even if you have no documentation, or DNA tests don’t show a match? In some cases, YES! In this podcast, we’ll look at 6 Trentino surnames that are KNOWN to have come from a common ancestor who migrated into the province from someplace else. Tune in to find out what these surnames are, and whether you might already know some distant cousins.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (5 June 2020) – Illegitimacy and Orphans

What do we know about illegitimacy in Trentino before the 20th century? How are illegitimate births recorded in parish records? Can an illegitimate child ever become 'legitimate'? How have patterns and attitudes about illegitimacy changed over the centuries? What was the role of the midwife, and how were midwives trained in Trentino? What was the ‘Istituto delle Laste' in Trento, and how can we find out about our ancestors who were born there? Tune in to find out the answers to these questions and how these issues affected our ancestors’ lives.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (29 May 2020) – Plague Remedy and Ancestral Occupations

PART 1: What kind of medicine did people take to combat the plague in the 1500s? In this podcast, I share a list of most unusual ingredients for a plague remedy invented by botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, the personal medical doctor of cardinals, kings, and emperors. PART 2: What can we learn by looking the TOP occupations in the province of Trento in the 1800s? What professions no longer exist? Tune in to find out the answers to these questions and how these issues affected our ancestors’ lives.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (15 May 2020) - Plague of 1630

RIDDLE 1: You may have heard about the Black Death in the 1300s. But what's the story of the plague that hit Trentino in 1630? RIDDLE 2: What are some of the legends told about the plague of 1630? Tune in to learn about the history of this devastating episode in the history of Trentino, Lombardia and Veneto, and to hear some of fascinating legends about life during the plague.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (8 May 2020) - Miracle Cross of Santa Croce

RIDDLE: What centuries-old mystical legends are still told about the discovery of a 'miraculous cross' on top of a mountain? Tune in to hear some fascinating, symbolic, and mysterious legends about the ‘shepherd’s cross’ from the early 1600s, which came to be known as ‘Santa Croce del Bleggio’.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (1 May 2020) - Castel Restor

RIDDLE: What centuries-old dramatic legend is still told about the spooky medieval Castel Restor in Val Giudicarie? Tune in to learn about the history of this ancient castle in the parish of Bleggio, and to hear the famous local legend of the 'villainous' Count D'Arco and the 'hero' named Painelli from the village of Duvredo. I'll also talk a bit about the history of the Painelli family.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (24 April 2020) - Nobility and Noble Ancestors

RIDDLE 1: How did some people become 'nobility' in Trentino? RIDDLE 2: What kinds of things can we discover about our noble ancestors? Tune in to find out the answers to these riddles! In this podcast, we’ll explore the difference between 'IMPERIAL' and 'ECCLESIASTICAL' nobility, how we can tell if our ancestors were ennobled, how noble titles were passed down, how to find our ancestor's coat-of-arms, and much more.

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (17 April 2020) - Carta di Regola

RIDDLE 1: You may have heard of the 'Magna Carta' in England. But what OTHER kind of 'Carta' was crucial to Trentino life? RIDDLE 2: What can this 'Carta' tell us about who our ancestors were and what was important to them? Tune in to find out the answers to these riddles! In this podcast, I’ll explore the ‘Carta di Regola’ (charters of rules) of rural Trentino. What were they? What can they tell us about Trentino life over the centuries? How are they organised? How can they be of use to genealogists?

Filo' Friday - Trentino Genealogy Podcast (10 April 2020) - Feudalism and Tithing

RIDDLE 1: Aside from starting the Holy Roman Empire, what did the Emperor Charlemagne do that changed the way our Trentino ancestors lived for almost 1,000 years? RIDDLE 2: What social custom, mentioned in a document from 1170, did our medieval Trentino ancestors adopt from the ancient Hebrews? Tune in to learn about the foundations of feudalism in medieval Europe, and how the practice of tithing, called 'La Decima', was used in Trentino. In the tradition of ‘Filo’, I will do my best to ‘spin’ a tale from these two riddles that will both entertain and share interesting facts about our ancestors and our ancestral homeland.

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Videos of Trentino

La Chiesa di Santa Croce del Bleggio, Trentino, Italy

For at least 500 years, my father and his ancestors lived in the parish of Santa Croce del Bleggio, in Trentino, Italy. This is a video of the first time I ever visited the parish church where all my paternal ancestors were baptised, married and buried. In this video you will see the sacred wooden shepherd's cross after which the parish was named, which was discovered on top on nearby Monte San Martino around 1600, and brought to the church in 1624, as well as the 1,000 year old subterranean chapel with 800 year old frescoes of angels on Romanesque pillars. You will also see the 1,000 year old square baptismal font in which all the babies of the parish were baptised for hundreds of years, and remnants of the even more ancient Longobard church dating from around 700 A.D. If you are descended from people of this region, I guarantee they would have been here! Hope you enjoy it.

Discovering Duvredo Frazione, Santa Croce del Bleggio

Duvredo is a tiny ‘frazione’ (even smaller than a village) in Trentino in northern Italy, with a current population of only 94 people. In 1919, my late father (Romeo Fedele Serafini) was born in Duvredo, which had been the ancestral home of the Serafini family since 1685 (we've actually traced the Serafini family back to 1590, but they were in a different village during that time). My father’s family immigrated to the United States in 1923, and he never made the journey to see his ancestral home. But I was truly blessed to have been able to visit it in July 2014. Here's a short video I made where I show the town, the Serafini ancestral house (modernised) and a rare walk-through of an old-style mountain house that is very much the way it was 100 years ago (well...maybe a little messier!).

Via Freri – The Serafini Family Explore their 16th Century Roots

The Serafini of Bleggio had their roots in a different part the Giudicarie, in in a in a village called Favrio, which is the original and most ancient 'zone' within the present-day town of Ragoli (also considered part of Preore in the past). In this 23-minute video, I document our day in Favrio – called 'Freri' in local dialect – sharing the discoveries we made. You'll learn a local legend about the plague of 1630, see breath-taking views of La Chiesa the San Faustino, Monte Irone and Monte San Martino, discover the 'sorgente' (or source) of the mountain spring that gives life to this ancient village, learn about the practice of 'filò' and visit fascinating mountain houses – with their tiny wooden doors and rounded stone archways – built in 1571. You'll hear me huffing and puffing, as this mountain village is just never stops going up, up, up! But most of all, I hope you'll be able to feel what I felt when I walked the same streets and visited the same houses my ancestors would have seen (and possibly lived in) over 400 years ago.

Trento Funivia (Cable Car) - Panorama of City in the Alps

A short trip on the "funivia" (cable car) in Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige Italy. In this video, you will see aerial views of the River Adige, the medieval church of S. Apollinare, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento cemetery, the Duomo (Cathedral) of San Vigilio, and a panorama of the alpine city of Trento and the surrounding Dolomites. You’ll see the ride up and down Monte Bondone from inside the cable car, and a few scenes of the village of Sardagna at the top of the mountain. NOTE: this is a home movie, so please bear with the occasionally shaky camera! Filmed in July 2015 by Lynn Serafinn, genealogist specialising in the families of the province of Trentino.

Remembering Romeo Serafini (Ralph Serafinn) on His 100th Birthday

I made this video for my grandsons Percy and Hadrian on 31 Oct 2019, in honour of what would have been the 100th birthday of my late father, Romeo Fedele Serafini (known as Ralph Serafinn in the US). Romeo was born 31 Oct 1919 in the village of Duvredo, in the parish of Santa Croce del Bleggio, Trentino, Italy, and died in Brick, New Jersey on 25 September 2001. When Romeo was not quite 3 years old, he, his mother, aunt and sisters, left their home to join Romeo’s father in Brandy Camp, Pennsylvania in the United States. In this video, I describe what life was like in Romeo’s home village, and the trials of crossing the ocean to a strange, new land. While I made this video for my grandsons, I welcome other family members, friends and descendants of Trentino families to view it as well. I hope it strikes a chord with you. Please leave a comment to let me know.

Finding Bono - Onorati Ancestral Village in Trentino, Italy

My grandmother Maria Onorati was born in Bono, Trentino, Italy in 1894. In 1922, she left her ancestral home, along with her 3 children (including my father), sister and brother, to join her husband Luigi Serafini (my grandfather from Duvredo, a nearby village in the same parish of Santa Croce) who had started a new life for them in the United States. For some reason, no one on either side of my father's family told our generation very much about our ancestral homeland, in spite of the fact that their families had lived in the same villages for many centuries. So you can see the majestic and breathtaking setting of incredible place, I've made this compilation of short video clips I took driving up from Riva on Lake Garda to Bono in Bleggio Superiore, and my meeting with my 2nd cousin Betty for the first time. It''s just a little introduction to the region.

Maso Pra Cavai, Bleggio Superiore, Trentino, Italy, July 2014

A brief view of the panorama around the farm B&B Maso Pra Cavai in Bleggio, Trentino. Bleggio lies in the Giudicarie Valley (specifically in 'Giudicarie Esteriore') in the Santa Croce del Bleggio parish

Musical Marmots from Trentino!

Mechanical, wind-up, singing and dancing marmots - an Italian, accordion playing marmot and a German beer-drinking marmot. Just a bit of fun at my cousins' house (a converted castle) near Rovereto in Trentino. Perhaps not as funny as the 'Marmot Scream' video, but I still think it's pretty funny.

Trentino Genealogy | Family History for Trentini Decendants

Genealogy Video Tutorials

TUTORIAL. Exporting & Creating Spreadsheets from Nati in Trentino Website (Aug 2020)

TUTORIAL. How to Use the NEW Nati in Trentino Website (June 2020)

Trento Cemetery - Tips from Genealogist Lynn Serafinn (July 2018)

Ancestry, family trees, research, translations, genealogy advice for those with ancestors from the province of Trento, Italy (formerly Tyrol, Austria)