Hit a brick wall in Ferrandina

[jllaf]

Hi - I'm struggling with data I can't find in Ferrandina. I have found the marriage record of my maternal great-grandparents GianBattiste and Filomena Pucciariello on microfilm from Ferrandina in 1882. I have also found the birth record of their first son Pietro, on microfilm records from Ferrandina in 1884. I have the ship manifest from 1893 showing their arrival with four children, stating they came from Ferrandina. In between, I know of the births of the other three children (including my grandmother), however, records of their birth are nowhere to be found in the films I'm looking at. The films are indexes of births for the Matera region, by town, in alphabetical order by last initial, in ten year increments. These records are very legible and are as easy to scan through because they contain no details, just names and years. I checked twice - no way I missed these records. Why can't I find these other three children? I have the same problem with my paternal family, the LaFianza's, also from Ferrandina. I know the year of my great-grandparents' marriage and the birth dates of their three children as well, but neither the marriage record nor the birth records appear. Please help.
Thanks,
John LaFianza
Glen Rock, NJ

[Italysearcher]

An index is just that. It is only as accurate as the person who created it. Imagine how many times they had to rewrite it to get it in order in 10 year segments. There is probably an index in every year (book) and if these are also in alpha order they would have been done at least twice. The most accurate indexes are those in date order as they were created as the birhs occurred. It seems unlikely that 3 children from the same family were missed. You might want to check the actual records since you have their birthdates.
The ship manifest states they 'came from' Ferrandina, not that they were born there??
Is it possible that the later children were born in other towns? On the way to Naples?