Looking for a cause of death in Agrigento, Sicily

[Nico Docherty]

Hello all,

I work for a family history research company and am having trouble discovering the cause of death of a client's relative. I have the death certificate and know which day they died but the document does not say what the cause of death was.

The family believe the relative may have been killed by bandits (possibly members of the Grisafi gang) and we are trying to confirm if this is true.

Is there another way to find a cause of death in Italian records?

I have tried to look at old newspapers (held in the Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana) but they have not been digitised and I cannot travel to Sicily.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!!

Nico

[Italysearcher]

Depends on the year. Italian death records do not contain cause of death however if he was killed by bandits then there may be a judicial case against the bandits. The State Archives sometimes has these or the Prefettura.

[rlw254]

In addition to the above, I have rarely seen descriptions of death circumstances in processetti for a child's marriage.

[mmogno]

Can you be more specific?

[AngelaGrace56]

My 5th great was killed by brigands back in 1809 in Lagonegro, Potenza and his cause of death was recorded in his hometown by the priest there. Obviously this was a Church Record, and not a Civil Record. There are no Civil Records for 1809 so I can’t check what was recorded there. https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... ds#p251598

(Generally, civil records don’t record the cause of death, as has already been said here, but I have researched towns that did record the cause of death. - Probably an exception rather than the rule.)

Can you please post the death record that you have, for us to look at. Knowing the date of death, and who we are looking for, etc, would be most helpful.

Angela

[Nico Docherty]

Hello,

Thank you all for the useful information you have provided.

In terms of specifics, the person I am looking for was called Lorenza Piazza (née Marsala) and she died on the 24th of February 1916 in Caltabellotta in Agrigento Province, Sicily. We suspect that she may have been killed by members of the Grisaffi gang.

I have attached the death certificate, which is all the information I have currently.

Any help that you could provide would be invaluable!

Thank you so much,

Nico

[AngelaGrace56]

Thanks for posting the certificate. You may want to write to the town again and ask for a copy of the actual death act (‘copia integrale’), which should be an exact copy of the original death act as written in the register. It would be interesting to know what it says. The certificate here has very little information. (I notice that the Death Act has been microfilmed but unfortunately it hasn’t been digitised yet, and those that have been digitised are currently locked by Family Search.)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/cat ... %20Library

If you need any help with the letter, let us know.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Thanks for posting the certificate. You may want to write to the town again and ask for a copy of the actual death act (‘copia integrale’), which should be an exact copy of the original death act as written in the register. It would be interesting to know what it says. The certificate here has very little information. (I notice that the Death Act has been microfilmed but unfortunately it hasn’t been digitised yet, and those that have been digitised are currently locked by Family Search.)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/cat ... %20Library

If you need any help with the letter, let us know.

Angela

Following on....

In case you don’t have it, here is Lorenza Marsala’s 1862 birth record, Record No 32
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cat=532073

The images were locked earlier but some have since unlocked. I’ve downloaded both pages to my desktop so if you can’t see the images, let me know via this thread, and I’ll upload them here.


(You will find civil records for the town of Caltabellotta, prior to 1862 here: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... abellotta/)

Angela

[Nico Docherty]

Thanks for posting the certificate. You may want to write to the town again and ask for a copy of the actual death act (‘copia integrale’), which should be an exact copy of the original death act as written in the register. It would be interesting to know what it says. The certificate here has very little information. (I notice that the Death Act has been microfilmed but unfortunately it hasn’t been digitised yet, and those that have been digitised are currently locked by Family Search.)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/cat ... %20Library

If you need any help with the letter, let us know.

Angela

Following on....

In case you don’t have it, here is Lorenza Marsala’s 1862 birth record, Record No 32
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cat=532073

The images were locked earlier but some have since unlocked. I’ve downloaded both pages to my desktop so if you can’t see the images, let me know via this thread, and I’ll upload them here.


(You will find civil records for the town of Caltabellotta, prior to 1862 here: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... abellotta/)

Angela

I can't thank you enough Angela, you have been so helpful! It is fantastic to have Lorenza's original birth certificate. Thank you for that.

As for a letter to the town for her ‘copia integrale’, do you know who I should write to for that?

Nico

[AngelaGrace56]

I can't thank you enough Angela, you have been so helpful! It is fantastic to have Lorenza's original birth certificate. Thank you for that.

As for a letter to the town for her ‘copia integrale’, do you know who I should write to for that?

Nico

I'm so pleased I could be of help.

I’m not completely sure of the correct email address. (I've been going round in circles looking for it.) You could try “comunecaltabellotta@tiscali.it or comunecaltabellotta@pec.it. The physical address is Comune di Caltabellotta, Piazza Umberto 1, 7-92010.
https://new.comune.caltabellotta.ag.it/


Hopefully someone else will chime in if this is incorrect, and also help you with a letter.

Besides asking for the “copia integrale dell’atto di morte,” - in a new paragaraph, you may also like to request any other documents relating to the death of Lorenza, if they have them. If they don’t have any related documents, they may be able to provide an address of where you can write.

My suggested heading for the letter:

OGGETTO: richiesta copia integrale dell'atto di morte di Lorenza Marsala, morte 24 Febbraio 1916, Caltabellotta

That way they see exactly what you want.

(There’s a letter here that has been used on previous occasions, which you could edit and use : https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... le#p231970)

All the best with this.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Following on from my previous post which includes addresses you requested....


Here is the marriage record of Antonino Piazza and Lorenza Marsala, in case you don't have it. It includes Lorenza's parents' names, as did her birth record, but the marriage record is clearer:


1881 Marriage No 69: Antonino Piazza and Lorenza Marsala
Caltabellotta: 28 November 1881
Groom: Antonino Piazza, single, 23 yo, contadino, born in Caltabellotta, residing in Caltabellotta, the son of Santo Piazza, residing in Caltabellotta, and of the deceased Giuseppa Fontanella, who resided in this town when living.

Bride: Lorenza Marsala, single, 18 yo, filatrice (seemstress/spinner), born and residing in Caltabellotta, the daughter of Giuseppe Marsala and of Paola Rizzuti, both residing in Caltabellotta.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2043548


BTW: I haven't been able to find anything about the "Grisaffi gang". I see that the surname "Grisaffi" is a name that appears in the town of Caltabellotta. It would be interesting to know what the family already know.

Angela

[Nico Docherty]

Following on from my previous post which includes addresses you requested....


Here is the marriage record of Antonino Piazza and Lorenza Marsala, in case you don't have it. It includes Lorenza's parents' names, as did her birth record, but the marriage record is clearer:


1881 Marriage No 69: Antonino Piazza and Lorenza Marsala
Caltabellotta: 28 November 1881
Groom: Antonino Piazza, single, 23 yo, contadino, born in Caltabellotta, residing in Caltabellotta, the son of Santo Piazza, residing in Caltabellotta, and of the deceased Giuseppa Fontanella, who resided in this town when living.

Bride: Lorenza Marsala, single, 18 yo, filatrice (seemstress/spinner), born and residing in Caltabellotta, the daughter of Giuseppe Marsala and of Paola Rizzuti, both residing in Caltabellotta.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cc=2043548


BTW: I haven't been able to find anything about the "Grisaffi gang". I see that the surname "Grisaffi" is a name that appears in the town of Caltabellotta. It would be interesting to know what the family already know.

Angela

Thank you again Angela for this incredible help. It is very kind of you and very appreciated!

I have sent an email based on the link you provided to the commune so let's hope they can provide me with the information I need.

Thank you also for sharing that record! The story we have is that her run in with the Grisaffi gang was over a disagreement regarding her seamstress work so very nice to see that this was her profession - more evidence the story may very well be true!

As you say Grisaffi was indeed a popular name in the area. I have read a little about the gang and they were actually based in Caltabellotta!

[AngelaGrace56]

I'm so happy to have helped. Please let us know how you get on. I hope the town is able to supply you with the death record and supplementary info.

Kind regards.
Angela