Montemurro deaths from 1857 earthquake

[joetucciarone]

Montemurro, a town in the Province of Potenza, experienced a huge number of deaths due to the December 16, 1857 earthquake. Several independent accounts indicate that roughly 5,000 of the town’s 7,000 residents perished. Mmogno has already shown one list on the Italian History & Culture forum, and a different list with almost identical figures appears on the fifth page of the following report:

https://www.utsbasilicata.it/allegati/R ... 27Agri.pdf

Yet the Antenati site lists a total of only 152 deaths in Montemurro in 1857, with nine of those occurring in the final two weeks of the year. Why is there such a huge mismatch in the numbers?

Only 47 deaths are recorded on the Antenati site for Montemurro in 1858.

[MarcuccioV]

Montemurro, a town in the Province of Potenza, experienced a huge number of deaths due to the December 16, 1857 earthquake. Several independent accounts indicate that roughly 5,000 of the town’s 7,000 residents perished. Mmogno has already shown one list on the Italian History & Culture forum, and a different list with almost identical figures appears on the fifth page of the following report:

https://www.utsbasilicata.it/allegati/R ... 27Agri.pdf

Yet the Antenati site lists a total of only 152 deaths in Montemurro in 1857, with nine of those occurring in the final two weeks of the year. Why is there such a huge mismatch in the numbers?

Only 47 deaths are recorded on the Antenati site for Montemurro in 1858.

Only possible explanation I can think of is the 152 number are non-earthquake related deaths (old age, illness, etc) and a separate list was compiled (at least to as good an extent as was possible) that included only deaths directly related to the earthquake. As to the existence of such a list I cannot speak, but it's the only thing that makes sense. Especially since the quake was so late in the calendar year (50 weeks)...

[AngelaGrace56]

Only possible explanation I can think of is the 152 number are non-earthquake related deaths (old age, illness, etc) and a separate list was compiled (at least to as good and extent as was possible) that included only deaths directly related to the earthquake. As to the existence of such a list I cannot speak, but it's the only thing that makes sense. Especially since the quake was so late in the calendar year (50 weeks)...




This is my thinking too. There must have been a supplementary register (diversi) written up. It would have taken a while to establish who had died as well because the town was "nearto" completely destroyed. I've seen images of the town post earthquake and there's a lot of rubble. (I noticed there were no 1857 Diversi records for the town, but the same applied for some other years as well.


Angela

[MarcuccioV]

It would also explain the smaller number for 1858 deaths as the population of the town had been significantly reduced. Some of those deaths could have been indirectly earthquake related (such as longer-term injuries and thereby not included in the possible diversi Angela Grace is referring to)...

[joetucciarone]

Mark - thanks for your suggestions. The marriages reflect what happened: there were 59 in 1857, with the last held on December 5. The next wouldn't occur until the following April, and there were only 20 in 1858. That's roughly 1/3 of the number in 1857, and the population had been reduced to approximately 1/3 of what it was before the earthquake, so those numbers make sense.

[AngelaGrace56]

Montemurro, a town in the Province of Potenza, experienced a huge number of deaths due to the December 16, 1857 earthquake. Several independent accounts indicate that roughly 5,000 of the town’s 7,000 residents perished. Mmogno has already shown one list on the Italian History & Culture forum, and a different list with almost identical figures appears on the fifth page of the following report:

https://www.utsbasilicata.it/allegati/R ... 27Agri.pdf

Yet the Antenati site lists a total of only 152 deaths in Montemurro in 1857, with nine of those occurring in the final two weeks of the year. Why is there such a huge mismatch in the numbers?

Only 47 deaths are recorded on the Antenati site for Montemurro in 1858.

You see a similar scenario for the town of Viggiano which suffered 800 fatalities as a result of the earthquake, yet these deaths were not recorded in the town's Death Register nor the Diversi. (And of course a similar senario for the town of Saponara di Grumento, which suffered 2000 fatalities. https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... ture/51463)


Angela

[joetucciarone]

Angela and Mark, your suggestions are making more sense, now that I've had time to read some of the books and newspapers describing the event. Towns like Montemurro, Saponara and Viggiano were so devastated their public officials may have been killed and their offices could have been destroyed. In other words, bookkeeping probably came to a standstill. I've looked at the death records for nearby Marsico Nuovo, which wasn't as badly affected as the above three towns. According to the report I mentioned earlier (https://www.utsbasilicata.it/allegati/R ... 27Agri.pdf), 257 of the town's 10,096 residents were killed by the earthquake. That was a tragic toll, but it only represented 2.55% of the total population. Of the 361 deaths recorded in the Antenati archive for Marsico Nuovo in 1857, 125 occurred on December 16, the day of the earthquake. Forty-nine of these were reported on December 17 while 76 were reported on December 18. No more deaths were recorded for the remainder of the year. Although this represents only half of those reported dead, it shows that the public officials of Marsico Nuovo were functioning during the crisis.

[MarcuccioV]

Angela and Mark, your suggestions are making more sense, now that I've had time to read some of the books and newspapers describing the event. Towns like Montemurro, Saponara and Viggiano were so devastated their public officials may have been killed and their offices could have been destroyed. In other words, bookkeeping probably came to a standstill. I've looked at the death records for nearby Marsico Nuovo, which wasn't as badly affected as the above three towns. According to the report I mentioned earlier (https://www.utsbasilicata.it/allegati/R ... 27Agri.pdf), 257 of the town's 10,096 residents were killed by the earthquake. That was a tragic toll, but it only represented 2.55% of the total population. Of the 361 deaths recorded in the Antenati archive for Marsico Nuovo in 1857, 125 occurred on December 16, the day of the earthquake. Forty-nine of these were reported on December 17 while 76 were reported on December 18. No more deaths were recorded for the remainder of the year. Although this represents only half of those reported dead, it shows that the public officials of Marsico Nuovo were functioning during the crisis.

It could have taken months (if not years) to compile a reasonably complete record. It's very possible many families were wiped out completely. And depending on the available labor force to search for and document the dead, the task of compiling such a record must have been a monumental task.

Looking at some photos online from after the event are shocking (and I reside in earthquake country and have lived through several major temblors). Some victims could easily have been buried under 20 feet or more of stone rubble and depending on when they were found were most likely unrecognizable & unidentifiable, aside possibly from location within the town.

Most likely after the cleanup/search was completed, a census of some sort may have been taken and anyone not counted among the living would be considered a casualty whether they were found and identified or not...

[MiguelKelleyG]

In Viggiano, only 1/8th of the population died in the earthquake, but the average death rate in the following 3 years dropped by 1/3rd of the previous average death rate. What accounts for that dramatic decrease in the death rate? Perhaps the majority of the people that died in the earthquake were the elderly, and this left significantly fewer vulnerable citizens in the following years.

An odd statistic: the number of marriages in Viggiano increased significantly in 1858, right after the earthquake. There were 85 marriages in 1858; the previous high was 65 in 1855 and the average for 1851-1857 was 49. What accounts for this 73% increase in the marriage rate?

Of the 170 people married in Viggiano in 1858, 17 were born somewhere else. In these 17 marriages in which a non-Viggianese came to Viggiano to marry a local person, only 1 was from Montemurro and 2 were from Saponara, so the increase wasn't due to survivors in those towns seeking a partner elsewhere.

In fact, the 20% of 85 marriages in which the bride or groom was from out-of-town was not unusual. In the 4,699 marriages in Viggiano from 1809 to 1910, 1,001 of the bride/grooms were from out of town. That is, 21% of the Viggiano marriages had a non-Viggianese partner. So, in that sense, 1858 was a normal year.

Perhaps some couples thought "Thank God that we survived. Let's hurry up and get married before the next earthquake."!!

[AngelaGrace56]

In Viggiano, only 1/8th of the population died in the earthquake, but the average death rate in the following 3 years dropped by 1/3rd of the previous average death rate. What accounts for that dramatic decrease in the death rate? Perhaps the majority of the people that died in the earthquake were the elderly, and this left significantly fewer vulnerable citizens in the following years.

An odd statistic: the number of marriages in Viggiano increased significantly in 1858, right after the earthquake. There were 85 marriages in 1858; the previous high was 65 in 1855 and the average for 1851-1857 was 49. What accounts for this 73% increase in the marriage rate?

Of the 170 people married in Viggiano in 1858, 17 were born somewhere else. In these 17 marriages in which a non-Viggianese came to Viggiano to marry a local person, only 1 was from Montemurro and 2 were from Saponara, so the increase wasn't due to survivors in those towns seeking a partner elsewhere.

In fact, the 20% of 85 marriages in which the bride or groom was from out-of-town was not unusual. In the 4,699 marriages in Viggiano from 1809 to 1910, 1,001 of the bride/grooms were from out of town. That is, 21% of the Viggiano marriages had a non-Viggianese partner. So, in that sense, 1858 was a normal year.

Perhaps some couples thought "Thank God that we survived. Let's hurry up and get married before the next earthquake."!!

This is really interesting. Thank you for sharing. Is this from your own research?

Re your observation that "the marriages in Viggiano increased significantly in 1858, right after the earthquake" - It is quite possible that they were second marriages because a spouse had died in the earthquake? This is what I remember when I went through my Saponara di Grumento allegati a few years ago - there were a lot of widows and widowers marrying because they had lost their spouse during the earthquake.

Angela

[AngelaGrace56]

Related thread but pertaining to Saponara di Grumento: https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/topic/51463

Angela