What’s the trick to deciphering this stuff?
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musicalshore
- Newbie
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 02 Dec 2010, 20:07
What’s the trick to deciphering this stuff?
I’ve looked through the guides on how to decipher Italian cursive, but it isn’t helping. How do you single out each letter? It all looks squashed to me.
Re: What’s the trick to deciphering this stuff?
I think it's a matter of experience.
Try with some written more clearly, you'll learn that they use more or less the same words. Then, you'll be able to read tougher ones.
Try with some written more clearly, you'll learn that they use more or less the same words. Then, you'll be able to read tougher ones.
Giuseppe "Pippo" Moccaldi
Certificate requests and genealogical researches in Italy.
Translation of your (old) documents and letters.
Legal assistance in Italy for your Italian citizenship.
Certificate requests and genealogical researches in Italy.
Translation of your (old) documents and letters.
Legal assistance in Italy for your Italian citizenship.
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TomAlciere
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- Posts: 14
- Joined: 12 Sep 2015, 18:49
Re: What’s the trick to deciphering this stuff?
Start with the most recent ones. If it's a small town, consider doing the whole town, starting with the most recent marriages and you will adjust as you go back, year after year. The marriages will have the framework on which to add the births and deaths.
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The thing to know is that the civil records are written by a bureaucrat, perhaps the mayor, and take the form of, There I was, little old me, mayor of this town of Altavilla, sitting here at my town hall desk in the year one thousand eight hundred sixty, on the 29th day of February, at hour twenty, when who should come strolling into the joint but seventy-one year old Michelangelo Russo of the late Giovanni, bracciale, and fifty-eight year old Carlo Volpe, calzolaio, and they declared that on the day of today, 29 February at hour two last night, died in the house of her habitation Maria Antonia Spaghetti, age sixty, born in the said Altavilla, wife of Antonio Ravioli, daughter of the late Marco Spaghetti and the late Mariarosa Pizza.
The records read like that with the quirk that they explain the declarants' relationship to the deceased, such as zio della defunta before they mention the death. Sometimes these relationships are exactly the clue you need to connect two lines of descendants. In my ancestral town the Restoration period death records often don't have the name of the spouse, sadly, but in a few cases the names of the declarants and their relationship (especially when a declarant's father is named.) can be what it takes.
These civil records often have an Easter egg of information that way. In some cases the father does not bring the baby for birth registration because he is in America, or in the military or in jail. The same is true for the father's consent in a marriage.
Processetti (the plural of processo) are sets of documents that got filed to document the legality of a marriage: birth records of the groom and bride. When the father was present and consenting then that was noted in the record; but if he was deceased then a certified transcript of this death record was added. Sometimes, however, the bureaucrat might select the death record for the wrong man, or the birth record for the wrong baby.
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The thing to know is that the civil records are written by a bureaucrat, perhaps the mayor, and take the form of, There I was, little old me, mayor of this town of Altavilla, sitting here at my town hall desk in the year one thousand eight hundred sixty, on the 29th day of February, at hour twenty, when who should come strolling into the joint but seventy-one year old Michelangelo Russo of the late Giovanni, bracciale, and fifty-eight year old Carlo Volpe, calzolaio, and they declared that on the day of today, 29 February at hour two last night, died in the house of her habitation Maria Antonia Spaghetti, age sixty, born in the said Altavilla, wife of Antonio Ravioli, daughter of the late Marco Spaghetti and the late Mariarosa Pizza.
The records read like that with the quirk that they explain the declarants' relationship to the deceased, such as zio della defunta before they mention the death. Sometimes these relationships are exactly the clue you need to connect two lines of descendants. In my ancestral town the Restoration period death records often don't have the name of the spouse, sadly, but in a few cases the names of the declarants and their relationship (especially when a declarant's father is named.) can be what it takes.
These civil records often have an Easter egg of information that way. In some cases the father does not bring the baby for birth registration because he is in America, or in the military or in jail. The same is true for the father's consent in a marriage.
Processetti (the plural of processo) are sets of documents that got filed to document the legality of a marriage: birth records of the groom and bride. When the father was present and consenting then that was noted in the record; but if he was deceased then a certified transcript of this death record was added. Sometimes, however, the bureaucrat might select the death record for the wrong man, or the birth record for the wrong baby.
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musicalshore
- Newbie
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 02 Dec 2010, 20:07
Re: What’s the trick to deciphering this stuff?
Hey that's my name - Michael Russo. My handle is an anagram.
I really appreciate this explanation. You don't expect civil documents to have a narrative.
I really appreciate this explanation. You don't expect civil documents to have a narrative.
