Record Atlas
7 eras · 1535–2026 · 560 places

Lombardy — the Duchy of Milan, Pavia and Valtellina

Milano, Pavia, Como, Varese, Lecco, Lodi, Cremona, Sondrio, Bormio. 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
1535–1707 Duchy of Milan — Spanish Habsburg rule Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Pavia · Archivio di Stato di Como · Archivio di Stato di Cremona · FamilySearch

Habsburg rule began in 1535 when the last Sforza duke died, Spain governed from 1556, and Philip II's possession was recognised in 1559. Valtellina, in the north-east, was not part of the duchy: it was ruled by the Three Leagues (Grisons) from 1512 to 1797.
1707–1796 Duchy of Milan — Austrian Habsburg rule Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Pavia · Archivio di Stato di Como · Archivio di Stato di Cremona · FamilySearch

Austria took over in 1707 and the Treaty of Baden (1714) confirmed it. The 1743 Treaty of Worms promised part of the Duchy of Pavia to the King of Sardinia, so the Pavia area is the one to check when a family appears in Milanese and in Savoyard records.
1796–1805 French conquest, Cisalpine Republic, then Italian Republic Archivio di Stato di Milano · FamilySearch

Napoleon's forces took the duchy in 1796 and Valtellina joined the Cisalpine Republic in October 1797 (10 or 22 October depending on the source). Austria occupied the Cisalpine Republic in April 1799 and France restored it in June 1800.
1805–1814 Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic) — capital Milan Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Pavia · Archivio di Stato di Como · FamilySearch

The kingdom was proclaimed on 17 March 1805 and ended with Napoleon's abdication on 11 April 1814. Civil-status registers for Lombardy and the Veneto from this period are generally dated 1806 to 1814 or 1815.
1814–1859 Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia — capital Milan Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Pavia · Archivio di Stato di Como · Archivio di Stato di Sondrio · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Cremona · Antenati · FamilySearch

The Congress of Vienna created the kingdom on 9 June 1815, with Milan as capital until 1859. After 1815 parish priests again kept the civil-status registers, with a duplicate copy sent to the tribunal.
1859–1861 Kingdom of Sardinia — Lombardy ceded by Austria Archivio di Stato di Milano · FamilySearch

Austria ceded Lombardy up to the Mincio under the Treaty of Zurich after the defeat at Solferino in 1859, and it was passed to Sardinia-Piedmont.
1861–2026 Kingdom, then Republic of Italy — Lombardy Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Pavia · Archivio di Stato di Como · Archivio di Stato di Sondrio · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Cremona · Antenati · FamilySearch

Italian civil registration began in 1866 for most of northern Italy, and some sources date the end of the parish-priest registers in Lombardy to 1860 rather than 1866.

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, 1535–2026, 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.

560 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 360 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