Hints for viewing microfilm??

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EliseLaRocca
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Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by EliseLaRocca »

i got one set of the two i ordered in today an will be going to view them. does anyone have any hints that might make reading these italian records easier or hints to help me search through them? i have a list of names and dates. very excited that they are here and hope i am able to read enough information to be able to find clues in them. thank you
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adelfio
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by adelfio »

I usually look for the index in the registry most of the time in the back of each year your looking at for the name your searching for. I use a digital camera (most FHL lets you use a camera good to ask) or you can use a I phone no flash I take pictures of the index pages so I have them in case something comes up like a another name I am searching.
Here is a video for you to watch it will help you play it all the way through Basic Italian Research
click on prompt
https://www.familysearch.org/learningce ... 22Italy%22
When Im close to being done with a film I will check it by going through each record one at a time to see if the index missed any records it happens

Marty
Researching Trabia, Palermo surnames Adelfio, Bondi, Butera, Scardino,Rinella, Scardamaglia

Marty
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Italysearcher
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by Italysearcher »

There are some tips and translations on my website.
Remeber Italian records are written in such a way that each record leads to the one(s) before, and sometimes to the ones after (notations of marriage and death).
Ann Tatangelo
http://angelresearch.net
Dual citizenship assistance, and document acquisition, on-site genealogical research in Lazio, Molise, Latina and Cosenza. Land record searches and succession.
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Biff83
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by Biff83 »

If your center has a ScanPro 2000 reader and it's allowed, you can copy the images on the microfilm onto a flash drive which you can download to your home computer. This allows you to create your own personal archival library of the microfilms and view them at your leisure.

Below is a link about the ScanPro 2000.

http://www.e-imagedata.com/
"Mintammicce impizzu mpizzu ca pue largu minne fazzu sule!"
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lcafarel
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by lcafarel »

You don't say what type of records you have ordered. If they are provincial Atti di Nascita (birth records), Atti di Matrimonio (marriage records), or Atti di Morte (death records), you will usually find the towns listed in alphabetical order by year, and you will usually find an index for that year of town records. The index can be at the beginning or end of the town's records, or even in the middle. Also, you may not find an index at all, and you may discover that a year of records for your town is missing even though the FHL catalogue indicates that it should be on that film. I find the catalogue listing to be misleading in that regard. The town's records can also be in the wrong place on the film, so if you don't find what you're looking for right away, be sure to look through the entire film. I've run into every one of these situations.

If you have ordered processetti/allegati (marriage portfolios with additional documentation) for a particular town, they are a gold mine of information, but harder to read. They don't have an index, and at least some of the records will be entirely handwritten instead of pre-printed forms. But they include marriage information, banns, birth records for the bride and groom, and death records for deceased parents and grandparents. As a bonus, the films sometimes also include birth/baptismal records for the years covered by the processetti.

For the Atti, there are helpful resources in the FamilySearch Wiki for reading them. Here are some links:

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki ... Record.jpg

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki ... anslations

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki ... Record.jpg

For reading handwriting, this is helpful: https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki ... andwriting

You may also find it helpful to have a list of Italian occupations as a reference. You can find several by searching the web.

Enjoy!

Lesley
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lcafarel
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by lcafarel »

Others have noted the options of saving your records to a flash drive or photographing them. From observing others, it seems to me that using a flash drive is time consuming and best suited to more limited research projects--for example, lookig for just a couple records or pursuing only your direct line. But then, you miss what you can find out from researching siblings' lines.

I am researching several entire families in certain towns for which none of the records are online, so I may not know for months or even years, when I've followed some new set of clues or pursued a newly-found surname, if there are other records on a film I may need. So, I am photographing all the indexes and records or my towns with a digital camera, taking two or three photos for each image in case any come out blurry. Then I process them at home--resize them, organize them into folders, and eventually extract the info into a searchable spreadsheet. I can take 600 images or more in a two-hour visit to the FHC, then do my detailed research at home. I'm grateful to a friend I made through this list for tips on this approach.

Hope this helps.

Lesley
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Tessa78
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by Tessa78 »

I would suggest you get a copy of Lynn Nelson's book - A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors

It is an INVALUABLE resource that will help you to read and understand the records.
You can get it used for as little as $4.23
http://www.amazon.com/Genealogists-Disc ... 1558704264

I would also suggest that you take along a MAGNIFYING glass - these records can be hard to see :-)

T.
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lcafarel
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by lcafarel »

Better than a magnifying glass--try to get a reader with very high magnification. The reader I use has a 45x lens, which is adequate. My FHC just added an even higher lens (60x perhaps) to another reader. My husband and I couldn't read our Italian films on the other machines at the FHC, even with a magnifying glass.
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carmine1917
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by carmine1917 »

http://familyhistory.byu.edu/Downloads/ ... ion_Guide/

this is a great resource on reading Italian records
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lcafarel
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by lcafarel »

Michele, thanks for reminding us about that resource. I had looked at it before, but forgotten about it.

I would caution the beginner that this resource is written for those doing LDS record extraction and makes some statements that a true genealogist or family historian should ignore. Specifically, it says to ignore all but what it deems to be "essential" data. It lists the following as nonessential information:
Page and order numbers
Names of officiators
Names of witnesses
Occupations of persons involved
Time of day when event took place
Identity of other participants not part of the family
Signatures of witnesses and officials
To the researcher, some of this information might be quite useful. For example, occupation is important information to include in a family history. Signatures can tell you whether a witness could write or could only make his mark. Information about witnesses and officials often includes ages, father's name, and occupations, and this may well be an auxiliary source of information on family members' activities once you establish the family connection through their own BMD records. For example, in my own research, Mastronardi is an uncommon name in Ferrandina, but it is the surname of both my husband's 2nd ggrandmother, who moved there from Craco, and of the town mayor, who was not her father. I have yet to figure out the connection, but I suspect there is one. It's also interesting that both the mayor and this woman's husband were shoemakers, an uncommon occupation in the town. I'm speculating that the mayor may be her uncle or grand uncle and may have been the one to introduce her to her husband. I should be able to determine the familial relationship, but the introduction will remain speculation.

The book also says on p. 4 that "the Italian Registro Civile is recorded on a pre-printed form." This is typical for later years, but not earlier ones, when everything was handwritten.

I've also found that in the first years of civil registration, indexes are often not organized alphabetically by last name. I've seen them listed in order of date, alphabetically by first name, and in a numbered sequence with no apparent reflection of event date or name.

Lesley
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carmine1917
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Re: Hints for viewing microfilm??

Post by carmine1917 »

Thank you for adding this information, it has been so long since I have needed to look at it.
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