When liste di leva are not an option... what to do?
Hi folks,
I hit a brick wall - one that has been very hard to try busting.
I'm trying to trace one side of my Italian family tree. I just have a general idea regarding birth dates (mostly just birth years) and a region (Padova), not much else. Given that back then Italy had compulsory military conscription, it made sense for me to start by exploring that avenue and try finding information about my great-grandfather. That’s when the #1 problem arouse: the Padova database didn’t return any results.
Knowing that a lot of the books for the Padova region were available on FamilySearch, I decided I’d take a look over everything before writing to comuni and churches. It's not helpful writing to comuni/churches when you don't have precise information. But I have not had any luck so far. I checked every book for Padova comune, and the comuni surrounding it… it's like none of them ever existed: I tried looking for his wife, and daughter, but there's nothing there.
So:
- When liste di leva are not an option, what are other avenues worth exploring?
- Is there any alternative way I could consider and try in order to find their records online? I've heard about Census records. But where can I find them?
- On FamilySearch.org, I was not able to find a collection of images for the Catholic Church Records in Padova. Am I missing something?
- I understand that conscription of all males at the age of eighteen was instituted in 1862. But did every single man indeed present themselves for it or were there exceptions?
- I've used the Padova, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1871-1929 collection so far. Can anyone here say for sure how complete that collection is? In general I find one or two volumes for each year when looking up Marriage Records but I cannot tell for sure if there are things missing or not. It's so hard to access what's available given that online research is always considered secondary source. But at this time I cannot partake in primary source researching (in person or hiring someone to do it for me).
In order to keep this short, I'll not share every little single thing I've done so far.
Thank you for reading.
Comments
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How certain are you on the name? Have you tried different spelling variations? All men should be on the leva regardless of their category/status.
Not all church records are available online for Italy. And very, very few census records are available. They are held by the comune and generally are not released to the public.
The Italian civil records on FamilySearch and Antenati are the second (state archive) copies of the records. In some cases they may not have been maintained well and volumes may have been lost or damaged, in which case they wouldn't be online. The comune keeps the original copy of the records, but that would require knowing which comune to approach.
2 -
First, Padova is a province, not a region. That would be Veneto, which is huge, but it's not clear what timeframe you're talking about to suggesting specific resources. If it's mid 1700s, the catasti are great assuming you get them online somewhere. I haven't found leva to be that useful unless the original book at the comune is damaged, but maybe some of the links here could help:
https://www.italianparishrecords.org/search-by-region/veneto/padova
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Hello, @Cousin Vinny - thank you for replying.
Let's say I'm very certain on the name but - still - I have tried many different spellings. I have even managed to search just by first name + first initial for cognome and it didn't produce any meaningful result.
Very good information regarding the source material being second copies of the records. I wish there was a list somewhere detailing their inventory: if the books have all been scanned, if and what things might have been lost, etc.
As I've said, by the very few sources I have the comune is indeed Padova . But not finding a marriage record or a record of his daughter's birth on the books available on FS just added to this mystery regarding the absence of his name on the leva. It's like there's not a single trace for any of them.
An experience genealogist have told me that she has found records for Italian men whose names were never in the leva available. So maybe I'm one of the unlucky ones.
Hello, @DangKwei - thank you for replying.
Yes, you are correct: Veneto is the region. I used the term "region" loosely (when I actually meant area) and I apologize if that led to confusion. Still, yeah, as I mentioned in my OP, I have already looked at the books for Padova (both Padova comune and some of the comuni surrounding it - meaning the other comuni in the same province), but no success. My time frame (for their marriage record and their daughter's birth record) has been 1882-1897 (just to be on the safe side. If I were to look for my great-grandfather's baptism record, that would be sometime around 1853 (so 1850-1860).
As for the Italian Parish Records website - does it just link to other websites? They don't have their own DB, correct? I had visited that site before and even contacted one of their recommended genealogists but it was (and still is) financially unfeasible at the time.
As for leva, do you have any idea if there were ever any copies made of the lists for the Padova region? They said to me that if I couldn't get a name from their DB online, they would probably not be able to help me any other way.
I know Veneto is huge, but if I were to consult all the liste de leva available there, the only Archivi di Stato I'd have to consult is BELLUNO · PADOVA · ROVIGO · TREVISO · VENEZIA · VERONA · VICENZA, correct?
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