Finding Great Grandfather's Birth Record
Hello.
I am having difficulty in locating the birth record for my spouse's great-grandfather. His name was Giovanni Cozza and according to his death record from 11 July 1902, Palmi, Reggio Calabria, Italy, it states that he was 59 at the time of his death and was born in Rogliano, Cosenza, to "ignato padre" and "ignata madre". It also says he was married to Carolina Sammartino which is correct. I have checked all birth records in Rogliano for the period between 1838 to 1852 and while there were multiple Giovanni Cozza's born, none were to unknown parents. Also, I have eliminated the ones I have found because they either died near the time of their birth or married another spouse. My Giovanni Cozza was only married once and that was to Carolina Sammartino. He married around the year 1875 in Cittanova, Reggio Calabria. However, I also cannot locate their marriage record. I am not able to find any post unification records for the comune of Cittanova on Family Search or Antenati. Can anyone assist me in directing me to where I might find his marriage record and/or his birth record please? His id on Family Search is G922-VQK. Thank you, Joseph Bisazza
Kommentare
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I'd suggest checking the marriage process records in his hometown. The banns would have had to been posted there as well. That might lead you to find the marriage place if it weren't Cittanova.
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No post-1865 Cittanova records are available online yet, so your only recourse for finding their marriage record is working with the comune of Cittanova directly.
Regarding his birth record, do you have any evidence besides this death record that he was born in Rogliano? Just consider that sometimes information given by informants on death records is wildly inaccurate. It's very possible that his surname assigned when he was first registered wasn't Cozza; that may be a surname he adopted later, say for example if he was fostered/raised by a family with that surname.
Also, in looking in the Rogliano birth record indexes for 1839-1841 I noticed that there were no births (unless I missed them) with unknown parents. I saw a few where the mother was named and no father, but no "genitori ignoti" or "padre incerto / madre incerta" or similar. Similarly, the diversi records don't contain any foundling births either. So it may also be possible that there was a separate register for foundling births in the comune and that register is not online.
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Thank you for your insightful message. I did think it was odd that the comune of Rogliano did not have records of unknown parents for the period I am searching and I had the same thought that perhaps it is kept in a separate record book. Also, you are correct, perhaps his surname was adopted years after his birth. I don't think I will be finding his information. Thanks again.
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