Record Atlas
7 eras · 1395–2026 · 13 places

Lake Maggiore and the Ticino — Varese shore and the Novara frontier

Sesto Calende, Somma Lombardo, Luino, Laveno, Galliate. 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
1395–1535 Duchy of Milan no registers survive

The Duchy of Milan of 1395 lay between the Adda and Ticino rivers.
1535–1707 Spanish Milan Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · FamilySearch

The Spanish viceroys governed Milan from 1535; France recognised Philip II's possession in 1559 (Cateau-Cambrésis).
1707–1738 Austrian Milan Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · FamilySearch

Austrian rule dates from 1707 and the Treaty of Baden (1714) ceded the duchy to the Austrian Habsburgs.
1738–1796 Austrian Milan; Novara under Savoy-Sardinia Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Novara · FamilySearch

The Treaty of Vienna (1738) left Novara and Tortona to Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy-Sardinia. A place near Novara therefore changed registers in 1738 while those on the Varese side of Lake Maggiore stayed in Austrian Milan.
1796–1815 Transpadane, Cisalpine and Napoleonic republic and kingdom Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Novara · FamilySearch

The French set up the Transpadane Republic in 1796; it merged with the Cispadane Republic in 1797 to form the Cisalpine Republic, capital Milan. Napoleonic civil registration ran roughly 1806 to 1814 in Lombardy and 1804 to 1814 in Piedmont.
1815–1859 Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (Lombard side); Kingdom of Sardinia (Novara side) Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Novara · Archivio di Stato di Verbania · FamilySearch

The decisions of the Congress of Vienna of 9 June 1815 created the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia as an Austrian land. Piedmont resumed civil records in 1839.
1859–2026 Kingdom of Sardinia, then Kingdom and Republic of Italy Archivio di Stato di Milano · Archivio di Stato di Varese · Archivio di Stato di Novara · Archivio di Stato di Verbania · Antenati · FamilySearch

Lombardy was ceded to Piedmont-Sardinia in 1859 and the Kingdom of Italy followed in 1861. Civil registration became national in 1866 in 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, 1395–2026, 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.

13 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