Possible reasons my ancestor not in birth records?

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gaeber
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Possible reasons my ancestor not in birth records?

Post by gaeber »

Ive been throught the birth records for Alessandria della Rocca for 1877. My ancestor is not there. I'm pretty certain of his birth place/date, but went through a few years prior and a few years post in case he made an error in his own BD, but he is not there.

So, are there possible reasons he might not be in the record? Mother died in childbirth, nobody bothered to register him? Horse cart in the shop? Earh quake that day?

I don't know much about Sicily in 1877, but it seems that the records are pretty thorough and accurate.
carubia
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Re: Possible reasons my ancestor not in birth records?

Post by carubia »

Some possibilities:
1. You have the wrong date and/or place.
2. His birth wasn't registered. It probably happened with a few births every year.
3. His birth wasn't registered until much later. I've seen births registered 20 years after the fact around the same time period in Agrigento province.
4. It was in there but somehow you missed it. Did you go through all the records one-by-one or only check the index? Indexes are sometimes incomplete.
5. The name was spelled differently.
6. He was listed under his mother's surname.
7. The family had a double surname.

You could try searching baptismal records instead.

What was the surname in question? What was his mother's surname? Did he marry in Alessandria?

What is your source for his date of birth? People from that time period often did not know their actual date of birth. Being off by a few days and/or a few years was common. Less common is having the wrong month, too, but it happened.
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adelfio
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Re: Possible reasons my ancestor not in birth records?

Post by adelfio »

What is the name of the person?

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

Marty
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