Record Atlas
6 eras · 1500–2026 · 332 places

Liguria — the Genoese Riviera

Genova, Savona, Imperia, Sanremo, La Spezia, Sarzana. 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
1500–1797 Republic of Genoa Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · Archivio di Stato di Savona · Archivio di Stato di Imperia · Archivio di Stato di La Spezia · FamilySearch

Genoa was governed by a doge, and after the reform of 1528 doges served two-year terms. Corsica was ceded to France in 1768.
1797–1805 Ligurian Republic (French client state) Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · FamilySearch

Napoleon replaced the Republic of Genoa with the Ligurian Republic in June 1797. It had a first constitution in December 1797 and a second in 1802, and Austrian forces held it briefly in 1800.
1805–1814 Annexed to France — departments of Apennins, Gênes and Montenotte Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · Archivio di Stato di Savona · FamilySearch

France annexed the territory in June 1805 as the departments of Apennins, Gênes and Montenotte.
1814–1815 Republic of Genoa restored for a few months Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · FamilySearch

The republic was restored from 28 April to 28 July 1814, and was annexed to Piedmont-Sardinia on 3 January 1815 as the Duchy of Genoa.
1815–1861 Kingdom of Sardinia — Duchy of Genoa Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · Archivio di Stato di Savona · Archivio di Stato di Imperia · Archivio di Stato di La Spezia · FamilySearch

The Congress of Vienna gave the former republic to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
1861–2026 Kingdom, then Republic of Italy — Liguria Archivio di Stato di Genova 2 · Archivio di Stato di Savona · Archivio di Stato di Imperia · Archivio di Stato di La Spezia · Antenati · FamilySearch

Italian civil registration began in 1866 for most of northern Italy; the Antenati portal carries registers from the La Spezia and Genoa State Archives.

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, 1500–2026, 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.

332 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 132 more stand on this ground. Every place has them all.

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