Are these the same child?
Hello again. I am researching a family and have run into a problem. The whole family lived in the Napoli area for almost their whole lives. I have found primary source birth records for both parents, their marriage record, and birth records for 13 children. Many died as children, and I have death records for almost all of them. I have death records for a couple of them as adults, always in the same comune.
The problem is this: One child, Domenico, was born in 1861. I don't have a death record for him. I have a death record for a different boy, Antonino, from 1863 that lists his age at death as 30 months. It is clear that they were born to the same set of parents. There aren't birth records from the same day (or preceding or following months) for another child in the family, so it doesn't look like twins or anything like that. It looks like they are probably the same person, but called by different names or nicknames (or they wrote down the wrong name by mistake on the death record).
Any thoughts on how to resolve this? I am starting by looking for records for Domenico from other sources (immigration records, US death records, etc) but wondered if you have any insights. I can share the ID numbers if you think it would help.
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I wouldn't worry too much about this discrepancy, as it's surely an error on the death record. Records can have absolutely have errors if the clerk makes a mistake, and since most people were illiterate, most mistakes went unnoticed by the people themselves. If you have clear evidence those parents are YOUR ancestor's parents (a marriage record of your ancestor, etc...), and you have a clear succession of children's births with no births closer than 9 months apart, then this family tie is truly very solid as it stands.
The only way to prove that this Domenico and this Antonino are beyond all doubt the same individual would be using church records of baptism and death. Civil birth records from 1820-1865 normally give the religious info on the right-hand side, so you can know which parish specifically your ancestors belonged to. Accessing the church records is a totally different story, however, since church records will not be online and can only be consulted on-location with special permission from the parish priest (not obvious to obtain). Of course, granted permission to consult, it is possible to research well beyond the start of the civil records in 1809, if you are so inclined.
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Thanks! I don't know anyone in the area (I know which parish though) and figured I would, should a diligent search for marriage, death, and immigration records not turn anything up, just conclude they are the same person.
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