Researching your ancestors in Savona, Liguria, Italy

I recently got in touch through the Internet with Mirco TARDITI, a distant cousin of my wife. He leaves in Savona, Liguria, Italy (where the LAVAGNA name originates from: actually from Lavagnola, a village near Savona) and discovered this site on the web. He has now gained a lot of interest in our family history and is digging up more history from the 'Archivi di Stato' in Savona, a place I visited 2 years ago for a whole week. Here are some pix of what it looks like when you try to go there:

The archives are on the 3rd floor, and there was no mark on the door of the building when you walk by on the street. Tough to find.

In Italy, civil documents such as birth certificates (Atti ni Nascita), wedding certificates (Atti di Matrimonio) and death certificates (Atti di Morte) are available in city halls (comune or municipio) from the Civil Registry offices (Uficio di Anagrafe or Uficio Anagrafico) for documents since 1866.
You can get a copy of these documents for free (0,05 euros /copy in Savona), and usually you get them right away. If you are looking for more than one document, it might take an extra day, or even up to one month such as in Firenze (you need to provide a stamped enveloppe for the reply letter).

For documents with dates before 1866, you need to talk to the Church authorities, either at the local parish Church (chiesa) in small cities (such as in places like Quiliano and Dronero), or at the bishop's offices (curia vescovile): beware as they are often closed in the summer. It is better to submit your request with precise dates.

Some cities have municipal archives (archivio di stato), such as in Savona:
Archivio di Stato, via Quarda Inferiore, Savona
tel/fax +39 (0)19 8335227
[email protected]

There for example, you will find all documents between 1838 and 1865. For dates before that you need to talk to the bishop authority.
You might however find some documents with earlier dates such as the population census (censimento de la popolazione), military enrollment (liste di leve), etc.

In any case you need to make sure you identify the name of the parish (parrochia) in the documents, as archives use that as en entry for your request. You will also be able to find ancestors more easily if you browser through all the documentation from a given parish, including population census.

Update: I haven't had time to browse through the data I copied from the archives yet, but I have uploaded them here if you want to browse through.

ps: it reminds me I should also upload all the data from the small mairie of St-Martin, near Lunéville, Lorraine, France, where I found lots of data about the DECRION family.