Your Italian heritage may be valuable beyond citizenship.

A Canadian citizen may be able to inherit a home, land or other property in Italy without first becoming an Italian citizen.

However, settling an Italian estate can require documentation establishing the deceased person's identity, family relationships and the heirs' entitlement. A Codice Fiscale (Italian tax code) is also used in inheritance and other transactions involving Italian authorities and property.

Your family records may be an important part of establishing that connection.

Your family may have owned:

• A home
• Agricultural land
• Vineyard or olive grove
• Apartment
• Building
• Other real estate

Historical records can help you identify where your ancestors lived and what records may exist relating to them or their property.

Italian Roots Canada can assist with the research and document-collection side of that process.

If a parent, grandparent or other relative dies leaving assets in Italy, the estate may involve Italian succession procedures.

Italian succession is a legal process transferring the deceased person's assets and property to heirs. The applicable succession rules can depend on factors including the deceased person's habitual residence and other circumstances.

We can help you locate and organize the historical and civil documents that may be needed by the professionals handling the estate.

You do not automatically need Italian citizenship to purchase property in Italy.

Foreign nationals can acquire property, although rules applicable to non-EU citizens can involve reciprocity requirements and other legal considerations. These should be confirmed for the individual transaction by an Italian notary or other qualified professional.

A Codice Fiscale is generally required for Italian real-estate transactions and other dealings with Italian authorities.

The Codice Fiscale is an Italian tax identification code used for dealings with Italian public administrations, private individuals and organizations.

It can be relevant to:

• Inheritances
• Real-estate transactions
• Leases
• Financing
• Contracts
• Tax matters
• Other administrative procedures

Importantly, foreign citizens can obtain a Codice Fiscale; Italian citizenship is not itself a prerequisite.

Names, dates and places on historical Italian documents don't always match later Canadian records.

For example:

• Giuseppe → Joseph
• Giovanni → John
• Different spellings of surnames
• Different dates of birth
• Errors in marriage or birth records

Researching and organizing these records can help you understand your family's history and identify discrepancies that may need to be addressed.

We can help locate and organize the records. We do not provide legal opinions on whether a discrepancy affects a legal proceeding.

Italian marriage, birth and death records can be valuable when establishing family relationships.

They may also help connect generations when researching:

• You → Parent → Grandparent → Great-grandparent → Italian ancestor

This is particularly useful when building a documented family history or researching citizenship-by-descent documentation.

Sometimes the biggest missing piece isn't a document — it's knowing exactly where your family came from.

Italian Roots Canada can assist with genealogical research to identify:

• Ancestor's comune
• Province
• Birthplace
• Family names
• Approximate dates
• Civil records that may exist

Once the correct comune is identified, the search for historical records can become much more focused.

Even if you aren't pursuing citizenship, researching your Italian ancestry can preserve your family's history for future generations.

We can help organize:

• Birth records → Marriage records → Immigration records → Naturalization records → Death records → Family documents

into a structured family archive.

Of course, Italian ancestry can also be relevant to people exploring Italian citizenship by descent (jure sanguinis).

However, Italian citizenship rules have changed significantly, including changes that took effect in 2025. Eligibility should therefore be determined using the current Italian legal and consular requirements, rather than simply assuming that having an Italian ancestor automatically qualifies someone.

Our role is to help research, locate, collect and organize the documentary evidence. We do not determine legal eligibility for Italian citizenship.