Record Atlas
5 eras · 1545–2026 · 167 places

Parma, Piacenza, Reggio and Modena — the duchies

Parma, Piacenza, Reggio nell'Emilia, Modena, Guastalla, Mirandola. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1545–1796 Duchies of Parma and Piacenza (Farnese, from 1545) and of Modena and Reggio (Este) Archivio di Stato di Parma · Archivio di Stato di Piacenza · Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia · Archivio di Stato di Modena · FamilySearch

Pope Paul III created the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1545 and the Farnese line died out in 1731. Modena and Reggio were an Este duchy from 1452; the Este kept them after the papacy seized Ferrara in 1597. Parma passed to the Habsburgs under the 1738 treaty and returned to the Bourbons in 1748 with Guastalla added, after the Gonzaga there died out in 1746.
1796–1814 French occupation, Cispadane and Cisalpine Republics, Kingdom of Italy Archivio di Stato di Parma · Archivio di Stato di Piacenza · Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia · Archivio di Stato di Modena · Antenati · FamilySearch

The French occupied Modena in 1796 and created the Cispadane Republic. Parma was ceded to France in 1801 and formally annexed in 1808. Napoleonic civil-status registers run from 1806 for Modena and Parma.
1814–1859 Restored duchies — Parma under Marie-Louise, then Bourbon-Parma; Modena under the Este-Habsburg dukes Archivio di Stato di Parma · Archivio di Stato di Piacenza · Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia · Archivio di Stato di Modena · Antenati · FamilySearch

Parma was given to Marie-Louise in April 1814 (she ruled until 1847) and then to the Bourbon-Parma dukes, and Guastalla was ceded to Modena after 1847. Francis IV ruled Modena from 1814 and added Massa and Carrara in 1829; the dukes were briefly ousted in 1831 and 1848. Antenati holds Parma civil-status files for 1806-1865 and Modena's Austro-Estense civil-status series dated 1852-1865.
1859–1861 United Provinces of Central Italy, annexed to Sardinia Archivio di Stato di Parma · Archivio di Stato di Modena · FamilySearch

In December 1859 Parma and Modena joined Tuscany in the United Provinces of Central Italy, which were annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in March 1860.
1861–2026 Kingdom, then Republic of Italy Archivio di Stato di Parma · Archivio di Stato di Piacenza · Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia · Archivio di Stato di Modena · Antenati · FamilySearch

Italian civil registration began in 1866 for most of northern and central Italy.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1545–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

167 places on this ground

258 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 198 more.

All record regions · The map