Death + Birth Record Translation

[mnaccarato]

Continuing to practice my translations, could I please get a cross-reference and answer to a few q's throughout? Thanks!

Death Record of Michelangelo Ferrante: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

Act #95. Dated September 5, 1891. In front of me, appeared Serafino Arcari, 48 years old, farmer, living in Sepino, and Liberantonio Corso, 60 years old, farmer, living in Sepino, who told me that yesterday, in his house in Sepino Casesparse, Michelangelo Ferrante, 61 years old, farmer, living in Sepino, died. Of deceased Nicola, farmer, living in Sepino during his lifetime, and deceased Nicolina Cusano, farmer, living in Sepino during her lifetime, and husband to Concetta Arcari. 

Birth Record of Maria Antonia Ferrante (his sister): http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

Act #130. Dated October 18, 1828. In front of me, appeared Nicola Ferrante, farmer, living in Sepino, who told me that a girl was born to Nicola Cusano, 30 years old, living with him, and that the declarant [this means Nicola, correct?] is 31 years old, having the same profession as above, living in the same place as above, on this official day in October of the current year, at 4pm, in the house [can't decipher this]. The same person has declared [can't decipher the hand-written word starting with F] the name of Maria Antonia. Right column: Baptized October 19, 1828 in the Parish of Santa Cristina. Is there any other important information in this column I should know of/what is the gist of the rest of it?

[bbivona]

Continuing to practice my translations, could I please get a cross-reference and answer to a few q's throughout? Thanks!

Death Record of Michelangelo Ferrante: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

Act #95. Dated September 5, 1891. Before me, appeared Serafino Arcari, 48 years old, farmer, living in Sepino, and Liberantonio Corvo, 60 years old, farmer, domiciled in Sepino, who declared that yesterday, in his house in Sepino Casesparse, Michelangelo Ferrante, 61 years old, farmer, living in Sepino, died, son of deceased Nicola, farmer, domiciled in Sepino during his lifetime, and deceased Nicolina Cusano, farmer,domiciled in Sepino during her lifetime, and husband to Concetta Arcari. 

Birth Record of Maria Antonia Ferrante (his sister): http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

Act #130. Dated October 18, 1828. Before me, appeared Nicola Ferrante, farmer, living in Sepino, who presented to us a female child and declared that the child was born to Nicolina Cusano, 30 years old, living with him, and ___ the declarant [this means Nicola, correct? yes] age 31 ____, ___ profession as stated above, domiciled as stated above, on the seventeenth day of October of the current year, at 4a.m., in their own home. _______ He declared that the child (fanciulla) was given the name of Maria Antonia. Right column: Baptized October 18, 1828 in the Parish of Santa Cristina. Is there any other important information in this column I should know of/what is the gist of the rest of it? That's basically it- October 19 is the day the parish returned the baptism information to the comune, but it states "il Sacramento di Battesimo è stato amministrato a Mariantonia Ferrante nel giorno diciotto del sudetto corrente mese ed anno.° The sacrament of bapitism was administered to Mariantonia Ferrante on the 18th day of the aforesaid month and year.

You did a good job on the translation but there are a couple of errors.

On the second record, the birth date is the 17th (it was reported to the Comune on the 18th) and the time is 4 a.m., not p.m. In Italian, 4 o'clock "at night" is what in English is 4 in the morning.

The baptism was on the 18th - the 19th is the date the baptism record was returned to the comune.

While similar, domiciled has a slightly different connotation than "living in." Domiciled represents their legal place of residence, where their official documents are recorded, while "living in" could be a more temporary living arrangement. "Domiciled in" means that they are recognized citizens of the community.

I made a few minor changes to names etc. and a few changes to make it slightly more like it would read in English. Since you're doing your own translations now, one other minor tip - "Ha dichiarato" literally translated says "has declared" but it almost always represents just the regular recent past tense. Instead of "he has declared" it just means "he declared" and the same holds true when you see "ha" before any past participle form of a verb.

[mnaccarato]

Thank you so much for this thorough cross-reference and for the added color on the specifics behind domiciled and ha dichiarato. This has and will help my learning substantially, I used to not be able to decipher anything so it's exciting that I'm making substantial progress thanks to people in the forum like you! 2 more questions if you don't mind.

Question #1: On Mariantonia's birth record, it states her name as Maria Antonia in the main section, but as Mariantonia (one word) in the Baptism column. Are they interchangeable or different because one is pertaining to a religious event?

Question #2: In the birth record, it states that Nicola Ferrante was 31 years old and Nicolina Cusano was 30 years old at the time of Mariantonia's birth. That would make Nicola's estimated birth year 1797 and Nicolina's estimated birth year 1798. However, I found their 1820 marriage record (linked below) and it states Nicola as 26 years old and Nicolina as 27 years old, making Nicola's estimated birth year 1794 and Nicolina's estimated birth year 1793. Do you think one is more accurate over the other/why the discrepancies may exist?

Marriage Record: http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

[bbivona]

Question #1: On Mariantonia's birth record, it states her name as Maria Antonia in the main section, but as Mariantonia (one word) in the Baptism column. Are they interchangeable or different because one is pertaining to a religious event?

Presumably what is at the Comune is the actual legal registered name. What was recorded there was usually considered the legal name unless changed by another document. I suspect it's just a misspelling at the church. Sometimes with two names the child may go by one or the other name or by both. It the child is going to go by the full "Maria Antonia", it would likely be combined as Mariantonia, at least for pronunciation purposes so it could have been written how it was pronounced. In Italian, speaking words that end in "a" followed by a word beginning with "a" (like Maria Antonia) are awkward so usually the two words are either combined or separated by an inserted consonant sound. ( "a Alcamo" becomes "ad Alcamo" and "alla avvocata" becomes "all'avvocata.")

Question #2: In the birth record, it states that Nicola Ferrante was 31 years old and Nicolina Cusano was 30 years old at the time of Mariantonia's birth. That would make Nicola's estimated birth year 1797 and Nicolina's estimated birth year 1798. However, I found their 1820 marriage record (linked below) and it states Nicola as 26 years old and Nicolina as 27 years old, making Nicola's estimated birth year 1794 and Nicolina's estimated birth year 1793. Do you think one is more accurate over the other/why the discrepancies may exist?

Some places and people tended to be more precise than others. Some times the ages listed at the comune in the records aren't necessarily the actual one. I have an ancestor who appeared as a witness in over 50 deaths over the years and based on the ages as he was listed in the public records there is about a 7 year range of dates in which he might have been born. In that same town there was a period where a large number of people in the records was listed with ages ending in zero. Almost everyone was 40, 50, or 60 and almost no one had ages ending in digits other than zero. When you have discrepancies like what you're seeing before Comune records are available, it's hard to make an accurate determination unless you can find some church records that actually pinpoint the birth dates.

[mnaccarato]

Thank you so much for the explanations - super helpful. I'm going to try to find birth records of Nicola and Nicolina to confirm their birth years since it's most likely between the range stated above.

[Tessa78]

When a couple is to be married they must produce their birth acts to the official.
I would assume that the age on the marriage act is based on the official's reference to the spouses' birth acts, and therefore is accurate.

T.

[bbivona]

When a couple is to be married they must produce their birth acts to the official.
I would assume that the age on the marriage act is based on the official's reference to the spouses' birth acts, and therefore is accurate.

T.

That is a good point. Most of the time when an age is referenced in a public record there is no corroborating document. (Age listings for witnesses, parents, etc.) Tessa is right that the filing of marriage documents typically required the spouses' birth records to be produced, so the age of the spouses shown there is much more likely to be correct on the marriage record than the age listed for them in other public documents.