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I personally have found the riveli microfilm very difficult to work with and have not really found anything of value to my own ancestry. I have only attempted riveli firm for the town of Sortino in Siracusa Province, Sicily. On one roll of film, all I found was one ancestor mentioned, and the only information was a count of the number of mules he had and was taxed on. Going through that film was very time consuming and a major disappointment.
It's also very difficult to bride the gap between 1820, when the state civil records begin in Sicily and the earlier years of the riveli microfilms. Sometimes they are two or three generations or more earlier. Unless you can get your hands on church records to fill in the missing years, you can't necessarily make a connection.
Hello Peg. I read your messages and went into adrenaline shock. Thank you.
I scanned about 20 films for the early Catania Riveli, anything before 1700.
Attached is my summary for people who I hope are my ancestors, only two names (in parentheses) are not drawn from these Riveli. Each little patch is a separate Riveli. As can be seen, some hold 3 generations.
Also attached Oratio and his family, his slave, his servants and on continuing pages his mules, properties, interest income, rental income, and bunches of stuff I do not understand; a total of 11 pages worth for this one family. In fact from the interest income items, with the percentages given, I was able to figure out the money system in use at the time.
I extracted and published the 1652 and 1682 index images as an afterthought, since there they were, available in the Riveli books, and relatively clean.
My favorite Riveli image however is from that document starved city of Messina and it fires and earthquakes. Attached also. Poor old Carlo at 16x smaller file size and not that clear any more.
I could ramble for hours about Carlo, his father and his sons. Especially his obviously missing eldest son Francesco. (his father was named Francesco). Because a Francesco appears out of nowhere at about this time, 1714, in the city of Palermo, a Francesco from whom I am descended. So as I said, I could talk about him for hours.
Anyway, what you say about difficult to work with, I concur with. However, Riveli have been a bonanza for me.
Hugh
Ever since I was a little boy, my dad would show me my great grandfather's card, and tell me that he was a count in Italy. I was always intrigued by that, but never really thought about asking my grandmother questions, or anyone else for that matter. About ten years ago, as more and more information...
