Can you help me solve a mystery?

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Josie07M11
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Can you help me solve a mystery?

Post by Josie07M11 »

My Nonno told me about the day his mother died. She died from childbirth after giving birth to twins. The babies also died. The problem is that I have the death records for both my great grandmother and her husband. Her husband, my Nonno's father died 2 years prior to the death of his mother, and as far as I can find she did not remarry. It seems unlikely that with 4 young children this Sicilian woman got pregnant out of wedlock. Therefore I thought that perhaps my Nonno was wrong about the way she died. He was only 7 years old at the time, after all. There is a cause of death on his mother's death record. I believe it translates to autointoxication. I've googled around and it is possible that this infection was caused from childbirth but I'd rather be sure than take that as the answer.

Here is a link to the death record. Unfortunately I didn't get good pictures. My relative works at the comune and when I visited Italy he allowed me to take pictures quickly before anybody else saw. (Apparently this is not allowed in the comunes.)

http://tinypic.com/r/2s0zifs/5 (bigger but sideways: http://oi39.tinypic.com/2s0zifs.jpg)
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Italysearcher
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Re: Can you help me solve a mystery?

Post by Italysearcher »

What you have is not a death record, it is a Scheda Personale' personal record card which is used to record all the events during your life i.e. marriage, birth, change of address, (on the back) present during a census etc. She was born in 1906 and died in 1958 making her 52 years old. It seems unlikely she died in childbirth. She was married in 1922 and it does not indicate the date she became a widow. I can't read the cause of death but it might also be auto insufficiency indicating heart problems. Getting pregnant out of wedlock was not unheard o and many widows with young children were obliged to take what they could get in order to support themselves and their children. She could have been a 'house.keeper'. Do you have the death records of these twins? Her other children? Your Nonno may not have been 7 when she died, he may have been remebering another family member who died in childbirth.
Ann Tatangelo
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PippoM
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Re: Can you help me solve a mystery?

Post by PippoM »

The reason of death should be "autointossicazione intestinale (enteric)". By reading this, I might suppose she ate something that caused her an intoxication.
But I want to add that I looked at the document again, and think date of death might be December 20th, 1938. This would fit what Josie says.
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Re: Can you help me solve a mystery?

Post by Italysearcher »

Thanks Pippo, those 3's and 5's always get me.
Ann Tatangelo
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Josie07M11
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Re: Can you help me solve a mystery?

Post by Josie07M11 »

Thanks to both of you! I don't have my Nonno's birth certificate but he was born in 1932 and I believe he only had one younger sibling. I'm not sure when he was born but probably soon after, in 1933 or 34. So if you're right Pippo and that is 1938 not 1948 then it would make sense for my Nonno's story about the twins being true, but surely there would be some record of their birth? Even if they're stillborns? Unfortunately I can't look at any of these records without ordering them from LDS because Ramacca records are not online. Thanks for both of your help though!
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