Livorno Birth Index, 1668–1810

BACKGROUND

The Jewish community of Livorno was founded in the wake of the Medici Decrees of 1591 and 1593 granting citizenship and status to all foreigners coming to settle, no matter what their background was, in the newly created modern port in the then small village of Livorno. The Jewish community in Livorno quickly became an important place of trade, transit, and settlement for Portuguese and Ottoman Jews. The community was further joined by North African Jews, local Italians like the Montefiores, and Ashkenazim. The archive of the community is rich with material going back to the late 16th century.

A Nação Hebraica (https://www.anacaohebraica.org/) has published a complete transcription of the Repertorio di Nascita 1668–1810 of the Comunità Ebraica di Livorno. The Index, believed to have been compiled in the early nineteenth century from the original register, is arranged alphabetically by family name and, within that, by year, in the format Family Name–Child's Name–Father's Name–Register reference. For example, under 'E' for 1668 appears the entry Enriques Francia Raquel de David, a 1, where "Enriques [Henriques] Francia" is the family name, "Raquel" the child, "David" the father, and "a 1" the folio number of the corresponding entry in the Birth Register– where the mother's name, Sarah, is also recorded.

The Index spans 1668–1810, though only the Birth Register for 1668–1740 survives, with later volumes presumed lost. Cross-referencing the Index and Register offers genealogists and historians an important new tool. A transcription of the surviving Birth Register is currently in preparation.

DATABASE

This database includes 10,735 Jewish births in Livorno.

The fields in the database are:

• Year
• Index Page
• Letter
• Surname
• Given name(s)
• Father's Name(s)
• Book
• Folio
• url (link to birth record)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks are recorded by A Nação Hebraica to their Portuguese-language editor, Oscar Rebordelo Vinhais. A Nação Hebraica is a partner of the Sephardic Research Division of JewishGen and we are pleased to make their transcription and index available on JewishGen.

November 2025