Translation Hints
By Angelo Coniglio
Beginning researchers often assume that all Sicilian and Italian records repose with ‘the church’, and ask how churches can be contacted for the records. But there were and are two separate sets of records generally available: 1) church, or canonical, sacramental records; and 2) civil records of life events. Perhaps it’s obvious that church records are kept in churches and parish or diocesan archives, but civil records are not. Rather, they are permanently stored in the towns of origin, with duplicates at provincial centers. Church records, some available as early as the 1300’s, record the administration of sacraments: battesime (baptisms), cresime (chrismation or confirmation), matrimoni (marriages), and morti (extreme unction). Civil records, instituted in the early 1800’s, by order of or inspired by Napoleon’s ‘civil code’, give dates and details of nati (births), pubblicazioni or notificazioni (marriage banns of proposed marriages), matrimoni (marriages), cittadinanzi (changes of address), and morti (deaths).
Marriage records show perhaps the greatest differences between church and civil records and their transformation over the decades, as well as insight to church/state politics and their effect on the public. Before the early 1800’s, there were no civil records, since the church held both spiritual and worldly authority. Early church marriage records were written in Latin, as were all records of sacraments. The records were kept in sequential church registers. Each clerk had his own methods, but usually there was an index covering ten to twenty years, before each set of records. These indices would generally be roughly alphabetical by the first letter of the groom’s surname. But sometimes they were alphabetical by the first letter of the groom’s given name, and you must remember the Latin forms of the names: Aloysius for Luigi, Joseph for Giuseppe, Hieronymus for Giralomo, Philillipus for Filippo, etc.
No marriage ‘certificates’ or ‘licenses’ were given to the participants. Church marriage records gave the date of the marriage and reported the dates of three consecutive feast-day masses at which the proposed marriage had been publicized. Then the title and name of the officiating priest was given, followed by the name of the groom, his father, his mother and whether they were living or dead at the time of the record. Next, the same information for the bride. If either betrothed was previously widowed, that was noted. Normally, the town of the marriage was not specifically mentioned, but rendered as ‘here’ or ‘this land’, unless one of the principals was from another town, which would be listed. The record gave the names of one or two witnesses to the sacrament and stated that the couple pledged their troth and were joined in marriage before the holy church. Although some men might be called ‘Magister’ (Master) or ‘Dominus’ (Don), no ages, occupations, or detailed residences were noted.
When civil record-keeping was started in the early 1800’s, a record that was instituted then, and remained in use until after 1860, was the Atto Della Solenne Promessa di Celebrare il Matrimonio (Record of the Solemn Promise to Celebrate Matrimony), or what we would call a ‘Civil Marriage Contract’. Though some call this a ‘marriage record’ it is not. These documents, in Italian, are ‘split’ records, where facts about the participants are listed on the left. On the right is a notation that the actual marriage, as reported by the pastor, took place in church on a given date. The date of the ‘Promise’ may be a day or two before the marriage date. The contract was filed in the permanent civil registry of the town (the Anagrafe). The marriage record, as before, was kept by the church and was the official, binding document.
The four-page civil marriage promise used from about 1820 – 1860 has much more detail than the church marriage record. It gives the date of the contract and of the marriage; the name, age, occupation, birthplace and residence of the groom; his parents’ names and status (living or dead); and the same information for the bride. Often the ages of the parents, if living, were also given. In addition to the names of two witnesses to the contract, the record lists all the documents in the Allegati, or ‘attachments’ to the civil matrimonial file, typically: the birth record of the groom and the bride; the death records of parents of the betrothed; death records of any previous spouses of the bride or groom; and copies of the marriage banns. Those records are held in a separate file, but sometimes the list gives actual dates of births, deaths, etc. and names of the principals. The signatures of any attendees at the contract registration who knew how to write (a relatively rare occurrence) are at the bottom of the marriage promise.
Then came the creation of a nation that did not exist before 1860: The Kingdom of Italy, which unified former northern city-states and duchies. It subsumed Sicilian lands and their records, from Abruzzo and Napoli south to Messina and Palermo, while breaking the hold of the church over the administration of law. Church holdings were taken over by the state, and church marriages were no longer recognized as ‘legitimate’. In 1875, this led to new Atti di Matrimonio (Civil Records of Marriage) with no mention of the church, and the requirement that whether they were married in church or not, a couple had to be wed in a civil ceremony for the marriage and any children resulting from it to be legitimate.
Coniglio is the author of the book The Lady of the Wheel, inspired by his Sicilian research. Order the paperback or the Kindle version at http://bit.ly/SicilianStory Coniglio’s web page at http://bit.ly/AFCGen has helpul hints on genealogic research. If you have genealogy questions, or would like him to lecture to your club or group, e-mail him at genealogytips@aol.com
