You can't spend 8 hours a day examining Italian vital records without learning a few things. When I began searching these records, I knew nothing at all. I'm sure everyone starts out that way. No matter how long you've been researching your Italian family tree, you may be missing some details. Take a look.
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| Even if you've mastered the basics, there's more to learn from an Italian vital record. |
Note that the way they recorded documents varies by era, and from place to place.
1. Stillborn Babies
If a birth record has a note in the margin saying nato morto, the baby was a stillborn—literally born dead. Or, on the line containing the baby's name, you may see the words senza vita—without life. Usually the clerk writes, "io riconosco essere senza vita"—I recognize the baby to be lifeless. How awful.
If the stillborn births are not included with the live births, they may be in the category called diversi. In many of these documents, the child has no first name, but the record tells you the baby's sex and the parents' names.
2. It's Twins!
Most of the time, town clerks recorded twins' births on separate documents. If you're looking at one record and see the word gemelli, you know it's a twin. These records often state which baby was born first. You may also see a senza vita note since infant mortality was high (see #7 below).
On some documents, they list both twins together. In the area where they write the baby's name, if you see multiple names, see if the word e (and) is between any of the names. This would tell you that it's two different babies. If the babies are different sexes, you'll notice that, too.
3. Grandfathers' Names
In some towns between 1866 and about 1873, they wrote vital records in longhand. They didn't use pre-printed forms. These record take a bit longer to dissect, but they do have a great advantage.
Birth records from this time often include the baby's grandfathers' names. This is a tremendous way to get a positive ID on the mom or dad. These documents also tend to give both the father and the mother's age, too. That's great because the mom's age is so often left out in other years.
Look for the grandfather's name immediately after each parent's name.
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| Once you know where to look, you won't overlook these important genealogy details for your Italian family tree. |
4. Father Died in World War I
Sometimes you'll find a special notation in the margin of a 1913-1918 birth record. This tells you that the baby's father died in the war and gives you a date. This may answer an important question for you: Why didn't this couple have any more children?
The typical format looks like this:
"Il genitore รจ morto per la guerra nazionale come da comunicazione della Ministero della Guerra in data 8 Luglio 1917 number 142604."
Translation: The parent died in the national war as per communication from the Ministry of War dated 8 July 1917 number 142604. Note that this 1917 notation appears on a 1913 birth record.
5. Different Dates
It's amazing that many 1800s' babies were registered at town hall and baptized on the day they were born. That's unthinkable today for health reasons.
But remember this: The day the clerk wrote the document may NOT be the date of the birth, marriage, or death. Always look for a second date in the document that is a declaration of the day of the event.
If there's a baptism column on a birth record, or a church ceremony column on a marriage record, the same holds true. A baptism column may say, "On this date I recorded that on that date I baptized this baby". Or, "On this date I recorded that on that date I married this couple".
Here's a simple rule to follow. If there's more than one date surrounding any event, use the earliest one. You can't record an event before it happened.
Need more help with Italian vital records? Try these articles from Fortify Your Family Tree:
6. More Dates on the Bottom
I felt disappointed that my 2nd great grandmother's town had no matrimoni processetti. These are the birth and death records associated with a marriage. Then I realized her town handled those dates in a different way.
They didn't record copies of the associated vital records. They wrote the dates at the bottom of the marriage record itself. Look for a list of:
- Exact birth dates of the groom and bride.
- Exact death dates of their parents and paternal grandfathers, if appropriate.
- Exact death date of a previous spouse, if appropriate.
These dates may help you find the original record. But if the birth or death happened before record-keeping began, this is all you'll get. Don't overlook it!
7. Who's Alive and Who's Dead
Any Italian vital record may tell you the name of any person's father. Even the name of a witness on a document may include their father's first name right after their name. Their father's name helps distinguish them from the 5 other guys in town with the exact same name!
Sometimes you'll also see the name of a person's mother—always using her maiden name*. But did you know there are hints to tell you if a person's mother or father is dead? If you see the word di (of), as in Giovanni Bianco di Antonio, then the father (Antonio) is alive. But if you see fu (was) instead of di, or defunto (deceased), the father is dead.
* Italian women use their father's last name for life. It's only if they emigrate to another country that they may use their husband's last name.
Some death records may tell you the person's mother and father are both dead. If you see "figlio dei fu Giovanni e Maria Cocca," for example, you know that both parents are dead. The dei in dei fu is plural, so both parents have died. The document may say degli furono, which is also plural. Or it may use the Latin version: quondam, sometimes abbreviated as qm. I used to think I could only assume that their father was dead until I realized dei, degli, and furono are all plural.
And don't forget about widows. If a man's death record mentions says "vedovo di Angela Galdiero," then we know he was a widower and Angela died first. Keep an eye out for vedovo di or vedova di. There's also an abbreviation, ved, which I've seen on grave markers in Italy.
8. No Parents or One Parent
There was a lot of hanky panky going on in some of our ancestral hometowns. That adds up to lots of out-of-wedlock births. Some birth records name only the baby's mother and padre incerto (father unknown). In rare cases, a man will report his child's birth but he won't name the mother. These documents will say that he recognizes the baby as his own. And then there are the projetti. The midwife usually reports these births. Of course she knows who the mother is, but she doesn't name anyone. The midwife, the mayor, or the clerk gives these babies a random name.
There were women in town who nursed and cared for the babies for some form of payment. Sadly, a lot of these babies died young.
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| Here are 3 more genealogy details you need to capture for your Italian family tree. |
Two more details apply more to families than a specific vital record.
9. Same-Named Children
Have you found a family that seems to have 2 or more children with the exact same name and wondered what's going on? While I have seen an exception* or two, you can assume the first baby died before their same-named sibling was born. This is a handy piece of information if the death records aren't available for the right years.
* My only explanation for 2 brothers named Giuseppe Nicola who grew old is that they called one Giuseppe and the other Nicola. It's still weird.
On a related note, if a man or woman dies and their spouse remarries, they are likely to name their next child after the deceased spouse. And if a man dies while his wife is pregnant, she will name the child after him.
10. Marriage Missing
When I began recording vital records, I was curious about couples with no marriage record. I recorded their marriage banns, and they had a bunch of legitimate babies. Why wasn't there a marriage record?
Later I learned the reason why. If a bride and groom came from different towns, they usually married in her town. But they had to publish their intention to marry in both towns. If you have a situation where there's no marriage record , see if the wife came from another town. If she did, try to find banns and a marriage record in her hometown.
Take another look at the Italian nationals in your family tree. Have you overlooked any of these 10 important details?
