The mail carrier today delivered a certified abstract of my grandmother's birth certificate. This marks, I hope, the last item I will need from Italy in my quest for my Italian passport.

It is sad that I was able to get all the information from Italy a lot quicker than I can get information from the federal government. I am still waiting for my grandfather's citizenship paperwork from the Department of Homeland Security. There are still about 1,300 requests ahead of mine and during the last month there does not seem to be any progress made.

I am still holding off getting the rest of the birth, marriage and death certificates until I receive the citizenship papers. No use spending all that money on those certificates if the citizenship papers disqualifies me from Italian citizenship. Those papers are really the last big item because the other papers will be easy to get in just a few trips because they are all located in Dayton and Lima, Ohio.

The return receipt for my request for my grandmother's birth certificate came in Tuesday's mail. I sent the letter on Nov. 10 and they apparently received it on Nov. 25. I received their reply Dec. 2. So the time of mail is about two weeks one way.

Is it too much to hope that on the same day they received my request, they pulled her certificate and dropped it in the mail? Probably, considering they ignored my first request altogether. Still, if they did, I should expect that letter any day now. I think I will choose to remain optimistic.

Sorry for the lack of activity, but no progress has been made since my last entry.

San Nicola dell'Alto either did not get my letter that I mailed in July or they simply ignored it. So I sent a follow-up letter this afternoon. This  time I sent it registered mail with a return receipt requested. If they ignore this request I will have to send a letter to the town's mayor requesting help. I also included another International Reply Coupon, even though I had already sent one with the first letter.

If you had read my earlier post about my adventure at the post office (here) I had a similar experience today. The clerk said she had never sold one of those before. She gave it to me and I thought it looked wrong and, of course, it was. So she had to go seek help. If anything, I am giving the clerks at my post office some good training.

Let's hope the San Nicoal dell'Alto responds to this request.

Great news in the mail today!

Received the extract from Cutro, Italy, of my grandfather's birth and it is annotated with his marriage. Two surprises were the date of marriage was a few months off from the date I had and his first and middle names were flipped from what I had. The name on the birth certificate, Antonio Salvatore, was also the name he used on the ship when he came to the United States. However, after coming here, he used Salvatore Antonio and later Samuel Anthony.

Hopefully, this will not cause problems. Some consulates are real strict about things like that and others don't seem to care unless the error involves the last name.

I am still waiting on my grandmother's birth certificate.

Also, I noticed that the CIS is suddenly processing more FOIA requests every day. I suspect, because they have that new pay service coming online later this month, they probably have hired more staff and are training them by having them fill FOIA requests. Instead of about 50 day, they are getting through about 200 a day. There are only 4,310 requests ahead of mine!

Received this e-mail today from the San Giovanni in Fiore:

COMUNE DI SAN GIOVANNI IN FIORE (CS)
UFFICIO DELLO STATO CIVILE
Egregio Signor Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
In evasione alla Vs. richiesta, si comunica che consultato il registro degli atti di nascita di questo Comune dell'anno 1901, non risulta nata nessuna persona con le generalit� di ZAZA Immacolata Annunziata il 25 marzo 1901.
L'UFFICIALE DELLO STATO CIVILE
Rosa ALESSIOI

If I understand this correctly, they are telling me they could find no record of my grandmother's birth in that city. I know that is where she grew up but I was not clear if she was born there. That is why I sent requests to two cities for her.I am concerned, though. This is the city I always thought she was born in. I hope they find her certificate in the other city or I could be facing a serious stumbling block. I need her birth certificate.

Just checked my Freedom of Information Act request with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and I am request number 5,491 of 5,809 pending requests.

I think I have a wait.