Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting
• Other Speciality

Alec Ferretti is a New-York-City-based professional genealogist and a nationally recognized advocate for public access to historical vital records. After researching complex family histories for the Wells Fargo Family & Business History Center, Alec built a practice centered on 20th-century immigrant families, where accurate, timely access to birth, marriage, and death records is essential. Most of his clients are applicants seeking recognition of citizenship by descent, primarily through Italian and Canadian ancestry.

Alec’s work bridges policy and practice by working with legislators to craft legislation, leveraging freedom of information laws, and helping researchers and the public obtain the records they’re entitled to under the law. He serves as President of the New York Genealogy & Technology Group, on the Boards of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and Reclaim the Records (RTR), and is a frequent lecturer on the law and logistics of records access. At APG, Alec runs the organization’s advocacy efforts spearheading lobbying campaigns across the country, while at RTR, he is primarily in charge of content acquisition. 

Geographic Specialities
New York City, Italy

Testimonials
"Alec was wonderful. He is very knowledgeable and very communicative. He goes above and beyond. He stayed in touch while he was on vacation which I appreciated. He does not nickel and dime you. He is an absolute pleasure to work with."

"Alec is extremely thorough and communicates in a clear and precise manner. He is willing to make changes until I was satisfied. He truly knows his away around the investigative methodologies."

Additional specialities or search keywords
Italian Dual Citizenship, FOIA, Immigration, USCIS

Lectures

Immigration Themed Talks
The Five Families of the USCIS Genealogy Program 
The USCIS Genealogy Program: An Inside Peak (Made to be a Part II to the prior talk)
Welcome to New York: All About Arrival Records 
Alien Files Boot Camp
Off the Boat: Tracing Your Ancestor back to the Old Country
We Just Got a Letter: INS Correspondence Files
Niche INS Records (Feat. P-Files)
Born in the USA (or Not): The Evolution of Children’s Citizenship
Lady Liberty: The Story of Women’s Citizenship
The Laws (and records) of Immigration 
The Laws (and records) of Naturalization 

DNA Themed Talks
DNA Clustering: Automating Shared Matching
Strategies to Analyze Endogamous DNA

Records Themed Talks
Government of the People: Leveraging Freedom of Information Laws to Procure Novel Records
I Fought the Law and the Law Lost
Advocacy for Genealogy
FOIA and Find Out
Novel NYC Records
Finding the Living
Making the Most of Ancestry
The Mess of New York Vital Records
Finding Digitized NARA Content
Reclaim the Records: Who We Are & What We Do
XC Files: 20th Century Military Pensions

Ethnic Themed Talks
Latin American Genealogy 101
Life Lessons from the Deceased: Uncovering my Connection to a Rabbinical Dynasty
Italian History & Genealogy Crash Course
My Fellow Italians: Navigating Dual Citizenship

Research Time Periods

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century

Languages
English, Italian

Certificates
So far, just a birth certificate.  Hopefully no death certificate for a very long time.  

Affiliations
National Genealogical Society
New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island
Italian Genealogical Group 
Gesher Galicia

Degrees
Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology & Italian)
Master of Arts (Archives)
Master of Library & Information Science