To all our recent 'Newbies'...

Carole · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 5:44 am Post subject: To all our recent 'Newbies'...

First of all 'A big welcome to our recent Newbies' wherever you are from.

There's plenty of room here for everyone and help from some really great people. I'm sure you're all going to just love it here...

Like Nuccia I'll be around too - but she's the 'hot genealogist' (together with lot's of other members) while I - for my sins - dabble (scrabble) around in English genealogy and with others help out with an occasional translation.

Don't forget our >Italian Postage Stamp service< which may be of use to you too.

DonnaPellegrin · Mem Joined: Feb 02, 2009 Posts: 66

Hi Carole,
I'm very curious about the Italian postage stamp service that you have offered here. I'm not certain what the stamps are intended for. Could they be used for return postage when I send a request for a record to a townhall in Italy? If so, how would I know how approximately much postage to send? I like to be generous with return postage. I have always sent international postage reply coupons, but I can no longer get them through my post office.

Donna Pellegrin

Carole

Hi Donna,
Thanks for your question - it is a very valid one.

Postage from Italy to the USA, Canada and S. America costs €0.85c for 20g and that isn't a lot of weight so I ususally reccomend that two stamps are included with any request. That is if only 'ordinary' certificati semplici are requested - but not for the larger documents which usually carry a fixed price per document and are charged accordingly.

Comunes are willing to pay the cost of postage on simple requests but in these days of recesssion even they find that the inclusion of postage stamps is a great help. I advise against stamped self addressed envelopes too, as often the comunes do not like to fold a certificate and the SAE may not be large enough. Plus - postage is also calculated on the 'size' of the envelope - not just the weight...

Over time I have seen that inclusion of stamps has yielded a very good response rate from most comunes, though sadly, not all.

DonnaPellegrin · Mem Joined: Feb 02, 2009 Posts: 66

Thanks, Carole. This is a great service! I will make good use of it soon. And what a relief to be done with those reply coupons.
Donna