The Mormon Church (LDS) has microfilmed the birth, death, and marriage records for many of the Trentino villages. The filming, in some cases, extends back to the 1500′s. The records are mostly in Italian, but many of the earlier records (1700′s and before) are written in Latin, and may be difficult to read due to damage to the originals and old-style handwriting.
There are branch Family History Centers located throughout the US and in many foreign cities. For information on locating a Center near you and how to obtain the microfilms, visit www.familysearch.org. FamilySearch also has an Italian genealogy word list available giving English translations of words commonly found in Italian documents and church registers (pdf format).
Always search the films for towns surrounding your town — there may be a surprise! For example: the microfilm catalog shows that records for the village of Segno is available only from 1923 forward. However, in viewing the film for the town of Torra, I noticed that records for Segno were included from the 1600′s, but not listed in the catalog. This was due to Torra being the “mother church” and record-keeper for Segno. Also, the films for Caldes includes the records of the village of Bozzana. If you cannot find microfilmed records for a small village, they may be included with the records of a nearby larger village.
