Case Study on "How Is That Possible?"

Here's a lesson that supports my earlier post, "How Is That Possible?" When my recent post about Italian marriage records led me to discover a mistake I had been making, I spent three solid days correcting my tons of such records in my enormous family tree.

The work was tedious, but after a while I realized that this change I was making—reclassifying certain dates as "marriage license" rather than "marriage"—provided the answer to a question that had come up a number of times.

I had quite a few men (these are small-town Italian men in the 1800s) who had gone through the process of posting their intention to marry a woman and then seemed to marry her, but went through the same process with another woman a month later.

What was going on? Divorce was not a thing, and the first wife had not died. In fact, I had proof that the first woman then went through the process with another man and married him.

Once I learned that they had not gotten married, but had merely obtained consent to marry, it became clear: The first couple intended to marry but something prevented the marriage. Each of them was then paired with someone else whom they did marry.

See When is a Marriage Not a Marriage?

I feel this corrected and more logical information makes my family tree even more solid. So I ran Family Tree Maker's built-in error report and uncovered a page full of birth date discrepancies. Some people had two birth dates from conflicting resources, while others had an original placeholder date that had been superseded by documented facts. So I was able to clean up all of the errors.

I even figured out and fixed the error I highlighted in How Is That Possible? where I had two Michele Leone's with the same birth date. The date belongs to my grandfather's first cousin; the other Michele Leone is a more distant relative born a different year.

Now I'm itching for other discrepancies to fix!

How to Read a Free-form Italian Death Record

I've shown you some birth, death and marriage records from the Napoleonic era in Italy. These were somewhat easy to read because they used a fill-in-the-blanks form. But your ancestral hometown may not have used the same form—or any form at all. What then?

Here is a record of the 1789 death of Francesco Colasanto, written as a single paragraph in 1851. It was part of the 1851 marriage packet of his grandson, Francesco Saverio Colasanto. I have underlined parts of the image and underlined the text that corresponds with those sections to show you how to read this type of document. Granted, the handwriting can be difficult. Practice and exposure to many documents written by the same priest or town official can get you used to reading it.

Handwritten death record prepared for the 1851 marriage of the decedent's grandson

Extract of the death of Francesco Colasanto. It begins with words to the effect of "In faith the priest of the Church of San Leonardo Abbate of Basélice," and goes on to mention where the original death record is found: Volume VIII, folio 41(?), document number 5. In that book of death records was found Francesco Colasanto, son of Giovanni and Donata Ruggiero, husband of Errica Pettorossi, died at 23 January 1789 and was buried in the same church. It states that this record is being written only for matrimonial purposes on 15 August 1851. It is signed by the priest, Giuseppe Maria DelVecchio, and by the mayor of the town. It bears a stamp from the church and from the town.

After viewing many handwritten documents just like this, I became familiar with their format and was able to quickly pull out the pertinent facts. Don't forget to let Google Translate be your friend.

OK. I promise to leave Italy for a while and return to U.S. documents.

How to Read Italian Marriage Records

When I was documenting every birth, marriage and death record from the Italian town of Baselice between 1809 and 1860, I was thrilled with the massive amount of information you could glean from marriage documents. In this town there was a whole packet of papers about the wedding itself. But if, say, the groom's father was dead, you would also get his death record. And if his father was also dead, you'd get his death record, which includes the name of his parents. So suddenly you've gone back three generations from the groom.

During this period of time a couple had to publicly post a notification of their intent to marry—twice—usually one or two weeks apart. These two posting dates were recorded by the town. After that an official document gave them the ability to be married.

Then the couple was married in the local church. The town would have one record for the first banns, another for the second, and another for the marriage.

Here are examples using my great great great grandfather Nicoladomenico Leone's second marriage to my great great great grandmother Caterina Pisciotti. (She was almost the same age as his eldest daughter!)

First notification of intention to marry

Second notification of intention to marry

The year 1842 the 12th day of the month of May at 2 p.m., I, Vincenzo Lembo mayor and official of the Comune of Basélice, District of Campobasso, Provine of Molise, testify that on the 24th day of April in this same year, a Sunday, was affixed on the door of this town hall the following notification. … Nicoladomenico Leone, age 43 (I have not figured out what the occupation says) who lives in Basélice, son of the late Giuseppe and the late Maria Zarelli, and Caterina Pisciotti, age 22, daughter of Giovanni, a farmer in Basélice, and Dorodea Petruccelli, living in this town intend to enter into a solemn promise of marriage with this second notice. (That last part is not verbatim.)

When the couple is declared free to marry, another document is issued. The year 1842 the 16th day of the month of May at 9 p.m. … the same name and woman appeared before the same mayor, having twice posted their intention to marry, the second time on the 24th of April.

On the back of this document is a paragraph stating that the couple was married in the church on the fourth of June 1842. It includes the priest's name.

An Italian marriage record

The above marriage document includes my great great great grandfather Nicola Leone's signature at the bottom. That's a treasure in itself. The document includes the dates of the posting of the couple's intentions, their church ceremony date on the right, and again their names, ages, occupations, and their parents' names.

In another post I show some of the other documents in what I call the wedding packets. See "The Italian Genealogy Goldmine: 'Wedding Packets'."