A few questions about indexing Italian records

KathrynAS

Hi everyone!

I've been indexing Italian records of all kinds. There are a few questions I have:

1. When indexing death records, regarding the status of marriages… which person do I record as the coniuge? The first? Second? Third? Person currently married to? So far I've been using the name of the last marriage OR the name of the person they are currently married to who is still alive. Is this right?
2. If they were stillborn, for age do I write 0 or do I leave it blank? The section d'eta is often left blank. I've been writing 0.
3. If the parent(s) are unknown, do I write genitori incogniti or whatever is written in the section? Or do I just leave it blank. I've been leaving it blank.
4. When indexing birth records, often there are notes on the side indicating later events like their marriage or death, or, if they were illegitimate, the legitimizing of the child by the marriage of the parents. I've been adding further records for each of these events. Is this correct? Is it going to result in too many records stating the same thing (ie eventually the death or marriage record will be indexed on its own, theoretically). Let me know what is the proper thing to do.

Thank you all!

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Going by memory of the general indexing guidelines (because I don't want to open a batch that I have no intention of indexing):

Index the most recent or current spouse.

If there's no age stated, mark the field blank.

Do not index anything other than names in name fields. If it says some variation of "unknown", mark the field blank.

The treatment of other events in the margin depends on the specific project. I don't recall ever working on one where they were indexed, but I know that it does happen.

KathrynAS

Here's an example. On the third page, the first entry has a stamp next to it, which is a death record: https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/71543952-eb34-49db-942f-10f59e7bbbcd

Julia Szent-Györgyi

"Access restricted": this can happen if it's an LDS-only project, or if you've already submitted the batch.

I went and got a batch from the nearly-complete civil registration - part B project, just to see what the instructions say. I couldn't find anything relevant to your fourth question, but the "What to remember" section does directly address your first one:

Spouses

• If multiple spouses were listed for an individual, type information about
  only the present or current spouse. When no indication was given of which
  was the current spouse, type information about the first one listed.

For your second question, the field help for the age contradicts itself: first it says "If less than 1 year was recorded or a child was stillborn, type the age as 0 (zero)", and then later, it says "If the age was not recorded or was written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Ctrl+B to mark this field blank." I guess you could interpret that as treating the word(s) for "stillborn" as equivalent to recording an age of zero …?

Your third question is addressed at the end of the field help for each name field, for example on the father's given name: "If the given names were not recorded or were written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Ctrl+B to mark this field blank."

KathrynAS

Sorry I did submit that batch, here's another example. Won't submit it until tomorrow or so:

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/3483cc55-489c-412f-9754-8ed2c02fbf38

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Ah! That project has slightly different text in the "What to Remember…" section, including the following bullet point:

• Index only the primary record on an image. For example, on a birth
  record, there may be a margin note about the marriage of the parents.
  Only the birth information should be indexed. A separate record should
  not be created for a marriage record.

It includes the same text about indexing the spouse, and the field helps for the age and all of the names repeat the same text as the other project's instructions.