Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

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Mickytom
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Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

Post by Mickytom »

Ciao tutti!

Thanks to several of you (most notably Suanj) and also the State Archives in Piacenza and the Mormon Church, I have now started to make some progress with my Italian family history. Last week I paid a first visit to my local Mormon Family History Centre, having preordered the birth/marriage/death microfilm for the decade 1890-99 for my grandfather's home area of Bettola, Piacenza. Knowing when my grandfather was born, July 1896, it was pretty easy to locate his birth record and I was able to find out from that how old his parents were at the time of the birth; I already knew their names. I am virtually certain, based on that information, that I also located his parents' marriage in 1891 and now know who their parents were, i.e. my great-great-grandparents; it turns out that the surnames of both my g-g-grandfathers was Cordani, and the maiden names of both my g-g-grandmothers was Agnelli. I have now ordered microfilms for two periods prior to 1890, in order to advance my research further, and I would now ideally like to tie this in with whatever census information may be available. What I would like to find out is if anyone out there knows what census information may be available for the area in question (I understand that records may be very fragmentary and would, more than likely, just give details of the head of the family and the numbers of people living under his roof), and where I could obtain this; would it be from the State Archives in Piacenza once more?

This gives rise to another question, namely the confusion arising during the Risorgimento, as it looks as if my research will shortly take me back pre-1860. From the historical maps I have consulted, it is unclear where the area around Bettola and Piacenza lay before unification. It appears to have been close to the border of the Duchy of Parma and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, but I note that there are other tiny principalities on the map which might come into the equation. Can anyone help?

Auguri

Mike
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daddymuzza
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Re: Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

Post by daddymuzza »

i have a census image from london 1901 census at 16 summers st holborn with a cordani famly living with italian families i presume to be from the parma area

ferdinando cordani born italy abt 1863 head

maria cordani born italy abt 1869 wife

julia cordani born london abt 1897 daughter

carmella cordani born london abt 1899 daughter

adele cordani born london abt 1895 daughter

francesca cordani born london abt 1894 daughter

desolina cordani born london abt 1891 daughter

caterina cordani born london abt 1890 daughter

luigi cordani born italy abt 1874 lodger ???????

other names at that address are secchi , gasparini ,ricchio ,negri ,rodi
if yer no fast yer last !!!
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wishyou
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Re: Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

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Mickytom
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Re: Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

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Thanks guys! It certainly now looks as if my ancestral home area was within the Ducato di Parma prior to reunification, albeit VERY close to the border with Piedmont-Sardinia! I've always known that the nearby towns of Bettola and Bardi were within the modern-day Provinces of Piacenza and Parma respectively, but was never sure where the border lay around the cluster of villages whence my grandfather's family came, which are in between the two. This may come in useful in my future research.

Mike
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Mickytom
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Re: Italian censuses in the nineteenth century, etc

Post by Mickytom »

Hello all

Following on from my earlier post, I hit upon an unexpected snag last week. I had ordered from my local Mormom Family History Centre the microfilm for Bettola, Piacenza covering the decade from 1870-1879, in the hope of finding the birth record for my great-grandmother, Maria Cordani, circa 1871-72. Although there are many, many events relating to Cordanis (not all of them directly related to me) after about 1875, as there are on the microfilm covering 1890-99, the name Cordani completely disappears before that. My feeling is that sometime around that time the border between the provinces of Piacenza and Parma may have shifted and that the birth, marriage and death records earlier than 1875 for the villages of Cordani and Ronchi di Groppoducale may be held under Bardi, the nearest town of any size other than Bettola. I have emailed the State Archive in Piacenza to ask if they can confirm this, but in the meantime does anyone have any comments on this?

Mike
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