Translation Help Please

[Timmwill]

Help please with a translation:

"siamo spiacenti di doverLe comunicare che la ricerca nelle Liste di Leva della provincia di Salerno ha dato esito negativo."

What is the "Liste di Leva"?

I had written to obtain conscription records.

Thanks!

[johnnyonthespot]

Also called "Registro di Leva"

Conscription Records [registro di leva].

These records list all males by year of birth and provide the name, parents’ names, place of residence, birth date and place, vocation, literacy, and physical description. They also show the draft board’s decision regarding the draftee’s fitness for service. If the draftee had emigrated, the date and destination are noted.

https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Italy_Military_Records

See example in this thread: http://italiangenealogy.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14470/

They seem to be saying that the search did not turn up any records.

[Timmwill]

Thank you very much for your help! Do you know, did all males have to register for the military in Italy?

Thanks again.

[liviomoreno]

The individual was not requested to register.
The list was prepared every year by the local authorities, all Italian males that would be 18 the following year and were residing in the comune were inserted in the register.

[Timmwill]

Thanks for your quick response.

So, a male born in Ogliastro Cilento in 1885 should have appeared in the registry for Salerno correct?. The one kept by the Archivio di Stato di Salerno?

[liviomoreno]

I would say yes.

[Timmwill]

Thanks again! He didn't show up so I'll have to dig deeper.

[lilbees]

I think what Livio said is that they "are residing" in said comune. That is the catch. The person you are seeking may have moved to another comune. The Salerno Archives did not have a record for my great uncles. They had moved from their comune of birth to another where they did in fact later register. It was by happenstance that I found their Liste di Leva in that new comune while searching for some other record.

lilbees

[Timmwill]

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to see if he moved from Ogliastro Cilento. Question, to not be in the Salerno Archives they would have had to have moved out of Salerno right - to another region.

[lilbees]

Not necessarily. The liste di leva record may not have been sent to the Archives from the comune which happened in my case. I would write to the comune they moved to and see if they have a record.

lilbees

[johnnyonthespot]

Somewhere, I read this about liste/registro di leva:

Once a year, each comune would pull out the atti di nascita book for the period 17 years prior. From this book, they would create the liste/registro di leva, making an entry for each male child born in the comune and now approaching his 18th birthday. This entry would include the information you normally see on the left side of the liste - name, birthdate and place, parent's names, etc.

With the new liste completed, as the year wears on, each of the males in the liste is expected to report and be evaluated. If it is determined that the person no longer lives in the comune but is resident elsewhere in Italy, a notation is made and he is contacted and ordered to report. If it is determined that the male cannot be located, he is listed as a deserter. If he reports and is found to be in poor health or otherwise unable to serve, appropriate notations are made.

Note that, in the case of deserters - especially during the WWI years - these were often males who left Italy illegally and went to the US. The Italian government apparently paid people to track down deserters and force them to return to Italy to fulfill their military obligation; this happened to an uncle of mine. Not only was he forced to serve, but he had to serve an extra year as punishment for not reporting when he was supposed to have done so.

The upshot is this: every Italian male should appear in the liste di leva generated by the comune in which he was born, even if the entry only says that he no longer resides in Italy or that he died a few days after birth.