The most efficient way for you to extend your Waldensian ancestry, quite obviously, would be to find your ancestor in a family history or genealogy that someone else has already compiled. That would save you many hours—and possibley even years—of research to find those ancestors yourself. And if you could find that ancestry already online so that all you needed to do was to download it, that would be terrific.
Because the Waldensians were kept so isolated from others for so many centuries, many people of Waldensian descent are related to each other. That means that the first step you should take is to find out if anyone else has already researched one or more of your Waldensian ancestral family lines.
The Waldensian Genealogies of Piedmont Family Organization Researchers
A considerable amount of Waldensian research has been done by families belonging to the Piedmont Families Organization. Information about hundreds of Waldensian ancestral lines can be found in their research.
To compare the surnames of your Waldensian ancestors to the list of the surnames of our family researchers to see if some of your ancestors are included in research already completed, click on the title above.
The Waldensian Genealogies of the Reverend Jean Jalla
Jean Jalla (1868-1935) was a prominent Waldensian minister and historian. He was very successful in researching his Waldensian ancestry. In addition to the parish registers and the notary and exile records, he also did extensive research in the ducal archives and in the archives of other localities where his—and perhaps your—ancestors also originated.
His interest was primarily in his own ancestors and so he did not include in his Summaries many of the siblings of his ancestors. Therefore, if you have the same surname but your specific ancestors don’t appear in his summary of that surname nor on the pedigree charts he used to illustrate this descent, you may well be able to find the link in the Parish Registers or in the Notary or Exile Records.
To have his summaries survive for the longest time possible, he chose to write his summaries on expensive, specially tanned animal hides, the best choice available in his day.
To compare your Waldensian surname(s) with Reverend Jalla’s list of ancestral surnames, click on the title above.