Why would the geneder of my great-grandmother be listed incorrectly on her birth record?

[turkeytrot]

My great-grandmother, Vincenza Siligato, was born in Gaggi (or Kaggi) Sicily on August 24th, 1887. The only record for the small comune of Gaggi (population ~900 in 1887) for that date is for a Vincenzo Siligato. The record also clearly list the gender as "mascolino" so they didn't simply write the name incorrectly.

Other supporting evidence I have that this is the correct record:

1. There is a 1913 immigration record for my 25-year-old great-grandmother that says she was born in "Kaggi."
2. I have DNA-matched relatives who trace their lineage through my great-grandmother's younger sister. That younger sister has parent's with the same names as listed on "Vincenzo Siligato's" birth record.
3. My great-grandmother's second daughter (my grandmother) was named after my great-great-grandmother which follows traditional naming conventions where the first daughter is named after the paternal grandmother, second daughter named after the materal grandmother, and likewise for sons. This holds true for all the siblings.
4. I have my great-grandmother's social security record from the U.S. where she lists her date of birth as August 24th, 1887.

Something interesting about his/her birth record is it's the only one with a note written in the margins that I can find that says: "visto e verificato il presente registro." This note was entered a few weeks after the birth on September 12th, 1887...I wonder why this note exists...was there some confusion about who this person was that needed to be verified?

Weird...anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

[suanj]

Sometimes, the Registrar wrote wrong. Well in these cases, after, passing some year, if the person or her parents, knew abt the error, needs to have a judge order that he orders the clerk to correct the birth register. And the judge's order is attached to the register. If this isn't there, it means he was really a boy. If your ancestor was a female, when she asked for a passport to emigrate, I think the correction had to be made. But I don't see any on the birth record. Instead the note you read, is a bureaucratic note that they have to insert, as a check that everything is ok. And all was ok.
It is very strange.. very very very strange... Maybe the clerk don't made the correction on the birth record and no crossed it with a big X.. and made a new birth record by judge order in some other year... that there is an error is evident...
regards,
suanj

[PippoM]

Did she marry in Sicily, or in the USA?
There might be a birth certificate as a marriage attachment.
Where did you get that record image?
I mean, if it's from Town Offices it's really strange. But if it's from Archivio di Stato (site Antenati), it comes from a copy of the register that was given to the local Court, so maybe for some reason, if the correction was made AFTER the deliver to the Court, no note was written on it, for instance because communication was lost.
However, I'd look in the second part of birth records of following years, to see if there is a request of correction.
Another attempt might be a check of "liste di leva" to see if that name actually is enlisted.

[turkeytrot]

Did she marry in Sicily, or in the USA?
There might be a birth certificate as a marriage attachment.
Where did you get that record image?
I mean, if it's from Town Offices it's really strange. But if it's from Archivio di Stato (site Antenati), it comes from a copy of the register that was given to the local Court, so maybe for some reason, if the correction was made AFTER the deliver to the Court, no note was written on it, for instance because communication was lost.
However, I'd look in the second part of birth records of following years, to see if there is a request of correction.
Another attempt might be a check of "liste di leva" to see if that name actually is enlisted.

She married in the US. I got the record from family search (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903 ... cat=545163), the year 1887 is not available on Antenati for Kaggi.

When you said: "I mean, if it's from Town Offices it's really strange. But if it's from Archivio di Stato (site Antenati), it comes from a copy of the register that was given to the local Court," could you explain this process a little more? I wasn't aware that the town offices had a separate set of records than what is visible on Family Search/Antenati. Is it possible if I write to the comune, I may get a record because it may have been recorded differently/separately? I assumed they consulted the pysical copies of the same set of records I can see online.

I looked at all part II and idicies for the years of 1887 onwards and found no evidence of a correction unfortunately, but this was a good suggestion!

[turkeytrot]

If your ancestor was a female, when she asked for a passport to emigrate, I think the correction had to be made.

Do you know of a way to look up or find if a passport was issued? I haven't heard of this being done, so I assume it's not possible.

I'm curious to learn more about how the record I posted an image of were created. It is my understanding that shortly after the birth, the baby is presented to a town official (by the father or midwife?) where the written record of birth is recorded. I assume many births were done at home during this time.

Would there have been any benefit to having a male baby and increasing a potential to lie or be deciptive about the baby's true birth gender? I can't imagine this would have been an easy stunt to pull off in a small comune. Out of the 5 siblings, they were born in three different nearby comune...so they were somewhat transient.

I've had some luck getting access to baptism records about relatives from the 1800's in the past...I may need to push my luck again and see if there is a corresponding baptism record for the child in the image of the record I posted above.

[PippoM]

When you said: "I mean, if it's from Town Offices it's really strange. But if it's from Archivio di Stato (site Antenati), it comes from a copy of the register that was given to the local Court," could you explain this process a little more? I wasn't aware that the town offices had a separate set of records than what is visible on Family Search/Antenati. Is it possible if I write to the comune, I may get a record because it may have been recorded differently/separately? I assumed they consulted the pysical copies of the same set of records I can see online.

I looked at all part II and idicies for the years of 1887 onwards and found no evidence of a correction unfortunately, but this was a good suggestion!

The birth (but also deaths and marriages) was recorded on two identical registers. After the end of the year, one copy was sent to the Court that had competence over the Comune. This copy, years and years later, may be given to the Archivio di Stato (and that's the case of the copy on Family Search). When an annotation had to be written on a register, a communication was sent to the Court, to have that done on their copy too. But if, by any reason, such communication was not sent, or lost, or the annotation wasn't written, the registers would be differing for such note forever.
You say you checked the following registers. Now, such corrections were made when there was a need, because it was expensive for the family to have a Court to state what WAS REAL. Such need might be a marriage (and this is not the case, since she married in the USA), a call to military service (Vincenzo would be called, but Vincenza wouldn't; so they should have done that when she was 18 or 19), or even to get a passport (and this might have been shortly before she left, let's say, from 1911 on). Now, records on FS are up to 1910, so, there might be a correction in one of the years after 1910, but before she left.
That's all to say that, if you can get a "copia integrale" from the Comune, it might have an annotation not reported in the copy on FS.

[PippoM]

Do you know of a way to look up or find if a passport was issued? I haven't heard of this being done, so I assume it's not possible.
Very little documentation about passports is available in Italy.
I'm curious to learn more about how the record I posted an image of were created. It is my understanding that shortly after the birth, the baby is presented to a town official (by the father or midwife?) where the written record of birth is recorded. I assume many births were done at home during this time.
Yes, mostly by father, or midwife, but, in some cases, even by other people. Births were done at home in most cases, especially in villages and small towns.
Would there have been any benefit to having a male baby and increasing a potential to lie or be deciptive about the baby's true birth gender? I can't imagine this would have been an easy stunt to pull off in a small comune. Out of the 5 siblings, they were born in three different nearby comune...so they were somewhat transient.
that wouldn't have been an advantage; for instance, because of military service; and, as I said, they would spend money for correction, when needed. You say they often moved around...I don't know how it worked, but maybe, when they moved to a new place, they didn't have to show any document, but just to declare who they were; if Gaggi was not the place where they finally settled, maybe family declared her as a female and the passport was based on what resulted in that place. But it's just a guess.
I've had some luck getting access to baptism records about relatives from the 1800's in the past...I may need to push my luck again and see if there is a corresponding baptism record for the child in the image of the record I posted above.
Yes, you might try with the Church, too.

[turkeytrot]

Very informative PippoM! I'll write to the town and see if I can find a way to get the baptism record...I've had good luck doing each of those things in the past, but with the current virus situation, I imagine things have slowed down further.

[Italysearcher]

Babies can be born with both male and female identifiers with the sex becoming more clear as the child grows.