Am I crazy - Idea about transcribing a town's records

[jgenduso]

Hi All,

I have been researching my ancestor's birth records using LDS records and have been having lots of fun. I have just got all the index records for Births from 1823-1894 done.

While doing this I got this crazy idea that I could transcribe all the records (Birth, Marriage, Death and Pub) for the whole town from 1820-1910.

Do you think this is worth it? It would be a really long project and I'm not sure anyone would really use it, besides me, since it is a small town. It is Resuttano (CL) in Sicily. There are max 300 births a year in the town.

My plan would be to work my ancestors whole history first then go back and, for each year, start with birth, then death, then marriage then Pub.

Thoughts?

Joseph

[TomG]

Wow, if you have the energy to do a project like this go for it. You may think no one else would be interested, but the info may be just what someone's descendants is looking for. I found some partially transcribed birth records for Belforte, ER, and they helped me figure out the pattern for other birth records I needed.

[Bette]

I believe my uncle's parents came from Resuttano (CL) Sicily. It would be nice to be able to confirm this. The names are Vincenzo Stella (b: abt 1873), son of Giuseppe Stella and Epifania Maisana and Maria Pantaleo (b: abt 1874), daughter of ?. Would you mind checking your index records to see if they are there?

Bette

[wldspirit]

It's a fantastic idea, and there are a few people out there who have given their time and energy to do just that, not an easy task mind you, but done for the love of genealogy and the opportunity to help others access records!

Any transcription we can provide to the genealogy community, no matter how small or how large the project, adds to the research available on the net!

Good luck with your project, and make sure you provide ItalianGenealogy with a link when your finished.
wldspirit

[jgenduso]

Hi Bette,

I found a record, in the index, for Vincenzo Stella - 1873 and Maria Pantaleo - 1874. When I get back to the microfilms next week I can get images of the actual documents and send them to you.

Here are images of the index entries for both.





Joseph

[MauroMags]

Would the FHC you're working at allow you to copy or transcribe an entire set of records? What is the proper protocol for this type of project?

[jgenduso]

That's a very good point MauroMags. I'll have to ask.

My assumption is that it would be OK. I have been getting info off the microfilms I rented and using it to construct my family history. I had planned on giving them all my information for their databases when I was done. I know they are always looking for folks to help with the digitalization of genealogy records.

I was hoping it would help folks, like me, looking for info too.

Joseph

[nuccia]

Hi Joseph,

I am extracting records from my paternal grandfathers town and let me tell you - it takes ALOT of time BUT having said that, I have been able to learn a lot about my family and meet a lot of wonderful people. Now, I am providing the actual images of the records which I think is the most labour intensive part of it. The extractions themselves are not too bad so you need to decide which route to take. The FHC will not mind you extracting the information - even if it is for the whole town.

Yes, it will help a lot of people and I am a firm believer in offering and using as many free resources as possible to research so the more of us helping each other the better -

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Good luck!

[micheleantonio]

That is a wonderful idea. I have often thought when looking at their records how much knowledge is locked in the various items of information.

If you spend enough time with a town's records a subtle picture starts to emerge. At least it does for me and I guess that is one of the rewards and beauties of doing the research.

[nuccia]

If you spend enough time with a town's records a subtle picture starts to emerge. At least it does for me and I guess that is one of the rewards and beauties of doing the research.

Yes it does. You will know the people of the town better than you know your own family!

[JamesBianco]

A great idea! I get really excited when I hear about people extracting Italian records, we've been in the dark for so long in terms of what we can access online. You absolutely should do it if you have the time and patience.

Good Luck!!

(and if you do decide to extract, post the link here and I will link it on my Italian Comunes online page here...)

Comune online

Nuccia, Cathy, Billie and a host of others have been working on not only getting our towns up and online, but to get others to follow suit!

[Bette]

Joseph,

Thank you for checking the index. I appreciate your help.

Bette

[donnawright]

I have already started for my grandparents' hometown. I am on my first reel now. To make it easy on me later (and a lot slower up front), I am making files of, say, 30 records and giving it a name corresponding to what records are there (date, record number, whatever). That way, I can take it home and bite off this elephant a file at a time. From there they will go into an excel file and can be sorted out by last name, then first name. If there are, say, two Francescos with the same last name, then sort by wife. In this way, entire families can be put together. I am still copying the documents and have not done any extracting yet. But I will. If there is a better strategy, please share. It's too much work to screw it up.

At my local FHC, there is only one person who does not like that I do this, but he leaves me alone. All of the others just leave me to it and ask "how did you do today?"

[jgenduso]

Bette,

Here are the two images of the records. I can try to get info off of them later if you get stuck.

Joseph

[Bette]

Dear Joseph,
How wonderful of you to go through all this trouble to scan and send these images. I am truly grateful! I have read them, to the best of my ability, but I am not sure about the first name of Maria Pantaleo's father. Since you are reading the records from this town, perhaps you are familiar with this name. I will post what I think the records say below. If any different, please let me know.

Record #200
Maria Pantaleo
Date of birth: November 18, 1874
Father: C......Pantaleo (fu Giuseppe), age 35, barber.
Mother: Felice' DiVita (of Giuseppe), age 34

Record #52
Vincenzo Stella
Date of birth: March 23, 1873
Father: Giuseppe Stella, (fu Salvatore), age 34, carpenter (falegname)
Mother: Epifania Maisano, (of Saverio), age 27
Residence on Strada Termini

Thank you, so much. I really appreciate this.
Ciao,
Bette