Help reading a birth certificate

[dpv]

With the help of this board, I have done a lot of birth certificate analysis in an efficient manner over the last several days. I have gotten good at spotting the names I need.

However...this one has me scratching my head.

http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... 2.jpg.html

I am trying to see a few things:

1. Is the mother's name "Maria Visco"?

2. I really can't tell the father's name. What's your best guess?

Thank you,

Don

[AngelaGrace56]

I'm reading:

Mother: Maria Visco
Father: Giuseppe Sagaria

Both surnames appear in the town.

Angela

[dpv]

Thank you, Angela. I would tend to think it is "Giuseppe Langania". At least that is how the last name appears on the baptismal record.

There are two things unusual (from my understanding) about this birth record:

1. The person presenting the baby is different than the father (in this case). I can't really understand that name and it doesn't look at all like the name of the father.

2. The mother's name is "Maria" and the daughter's name is "Maria". Perhaps Maria is the name of the the father's mother.

Don

[liviomoreno]

Sagaria is correct.

[dpv]

Okay...Sagaria it is. I will defer to your expertise, but also question my understanding of what a script capital letter "L" looks like compared to a script capital letter "S"!

[AngelaGrace56]

Sagaria is correct.

Thankyou for the confirmation, Livio.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Okay...Sagaria it is. I will defer to your expertise, but also question my understanding of what a script capital letter "L" looks like compared to a script capital letter "S"!

I can understand how you may have misread the first letter for an "L". However, if you take another look at the record you will notice that the only difference really between what has been written in the Birth Record, on the left, and the Baptism Record on the right, is that the tail of the S in the Baptism Record is attached to the first letter "a" in the surname Sagaria. There is absolutely no letter "n" anywhere in the surname. Compare the other letters "n" in the record.

You'll soon get use to the script in your records. Meanwhile, you may find the following helpful. There is a section on Italian Handwriting which I have linked you too. It's just a guide. Everyone has their own particular writing style.

Records Extraction Guide: https://script.byu.edu/Pages/the-italia ... english%29

Italian Handwriting: https://script.byu.edu/Plugins/FileMana ... tion_A.pdf

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

2. The mother's name is "Maria" and the daughter's name is "Maria". Perhaps Maria is the name of the the father's mother.

Don

Just a quick reply to this question:

It's a possibility, sure, but why assume or guess? (It was very common for Italian families to name a daughter and even a son Maria after Mary, the mother of Jesus.) Now that you have the names of the parents, why not look for their marriage record. On their marriage record, the names of each of their parents should be included. Another option would be to look for each of their death records. They should include the names of their respective parents.

(See my previous post here.)

Angela

[dpv]

2. The mother's name is "Maria" and the daughter's name is "Maria". Perhaps Maria is the name of the the father's mother.

Don

Just a quick reply to this question:

It's a possibility, sure, but why assume or guess? (It was very common for Italian families to name a daughter and even a son Maria after Mary, the mother of Jesus.) Now that you have the names of the parents, why not look for their marriage record. On their marriage record, the names of each of their parents should be included. Another option would be to look for each of their death records. They should include the names of their respective parents.

(See my previous post here.)

Angela

I will look for that record. I am doing the birth records first, then death and then marriage. In this particular family (Visco), there are many examples of the typical naming convention for the children. I have not seen, at any point, that a daughter was named after the mother, however. But I will certainly verify!

Thanks

Don