Death records

[lorinigro]

Why is it that the beginning of Italian death records the records themselves are the type where the writer would "fill in the blank" of the template but then there are a few that are hand written (and usually in the back)? What is the difference betweeen the two?

[maestra36]

Sometimes a town's death records are completely handwritten and sometimes there are the templates of which you speak that have the fill in the blanks. Towns tend to vary on the format of their records, sometimes even from year to year. I think you might be referring to records which appear in Part I of a given year vs records which appear in Part II of the same year (the latter possibly being completely handwritten) Those that are handwritten may be records for foundlings, abandoned children, or children of unknown parentage. I have even seen handwritten records in part two for fetuses that had died and had not been assigned names. Also sometimes records which are handwritten and appear in Part II are records for a town resident who died in another town or location. I have seen records for those who died in hospitals in other towns (remember in those days, deaths normally took place in the home). These were records which had been sent to the officials of one town from officials in another town, possibly even from an official in another country. I have one such death record for the grandfather of my husband's maternal grandfather's grandfather who died in Buenos Aires in Argentina. His death record was sent from the official in Argentina to the official of his town in Caserta Province and was completely handwritten and found in the Part II section of the records in the year in which he died.

[Italysearcher]

I think they sometimes just ran out of the printed forms!

[lorinigro]

I think it may be a case where he died outside of the town. I'm not fluent in Italian at all, but I was able to pick up words here and there, like Brooklyn and New York. Here is the record I'm referring to:

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4049 ... odeath.jpg
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/830/gi ... death2.jpg

I'm slightly confused since Giuseppe Nigro's wife, Maria Grazia Rizzo, remarried Nov 20, 1902, and it looks like Giuseppe Nigro only died in October of 1902. But maybe if he was in the US she had something going on back in Italy.....

[maestra36]

Your ancestor Giuseppe Nigro definitely died in Brooklyn, NY, in a house located at 312 Union, where it appears he was residing at the time. The date of Oct 19, 1902 at 7:30 a.m. which appears on the top of page 1 of the record, is the date that Maria Grazia Rizzo appeared before the town official in Laurenza and presented him with a copy of the death act of Giuseppe Nigro which had been transmitted from NY.

The section about his NY death talks about the doctor, W T Pennington, who treated Giuseppe Nigro from July 20th to Sept 20th, 1893. He had acute ? (have to check on the word). He was age 33, at the time of his death, a contadino or farmer, of Italian nationality, and had been a resident of the U.S. for abt 13 months. His father- Francesco Nigro and his mother, Rosa Nigro. The place of death was 312 Union Avenue in Brooklyn NY, where he was residing at the time. He is buried in Linden Hill cemetery. His death was registered on Sept 21, 1898. The copy she presented to the town official in Laurenza confirmed to the original.

[maestra36]

His date of death in Brooklyn NY was Sept 20, 1898 (I mistakenly typed 1893 above, sorry).

[maestra36]

cause of death: consunzione acuta- he had acute tuberculosis consumption

[maestra36]

That's all the info I see in the document that is important.

[maestra36]

The copy of the death Maria Grazia Rizzo presented in Laurenzana "conformed" to the original. I typed the word confirmed by mistake.

[Italysearcher]

I too have seen very detailed death records for those who died overseas. The Consulate appeared to be trying to provide as much information as possible for the family in Italy who were often not provided with this information for months after the death.