Does Family Search have records that go back to 1600?

CherieBrancati

Looking for a death record for Guiseppe Brancati - May 11, 1774 Agerola and possibly his father Giovanni .

thank you and much appreciated.....

joseph99929

Although there are some pre-civil records online for certain parts of Italy, this is very rare. For Agerola specifically, any research before 1809 will absolutely require on-site work.

Here are the different sources you can use for pre-1809 research in Agerola:

1. Church records: The main source is of course church records, which should still be held at the original parish church or churches, and in theory should go back to the 1500s if they've not been affected by some calamity in the meantime. However, the level of detail given in church records varies, and they are nowhere near as detailed as the civil records. Of course, the bigger issue is access. Church records in Italy are considered private records and they are the sole property of the parish. Any consultation is at the sole discretion of the parish priest. In general, though, if your connection to the town is close, parish priests are usually happy to assist. I've not personally encountered many difficulties in this regards. That said, having relatives living in town that can vouch for you goes a very long way, and also makes the trip much more enjoyable! In any case, unless you are particularly trusted, the parish priest must supervise research, so the number of hours you'll actually get with the books will be limited and will probably require you to make multiple trips. For all these reasons, few people ever attempt to study church records, and many instead use the services of professional genealogists in the area, which are not unreasonable in price when compared to travel.
2. Catasto onciario: The catasto onciario was a nationwide census of the population done between 1741-1756. The year varies from town to town. For Agerola, it was done in 1752. These records are open to the public at the Archivio di Stato di Napoli. They can be consulted in person by yourself or by a professional genealogist, and it's also possible to order the archive to photograph the entire census for your town for a fee of a few hundred euro.
3. Notarial records: Notarial records include all manner of contracts drafted by notaries, but the most important for genealogy are marriage contracts and wills. These records are extremely valuable because of their accuracy, though they are extremely time-consuming to sift through due to the sheer volume of contracts, most of which are business-related and although quite interesting to read, are totally irrelevant for genealogy. Even a small town will have hundreds of books of contracts. The notarial records of the notaries from Agerola are held at the Archivio di Stato di Napoli, open to the public, and there are well over 400 volumes worth of records spanning the 1600s-1800s. To go through all of them would require months and months on-site!
4. Diocesan records: The Archivio Diocesano di Amalfi, open to the public, holds church marriage processetti as well as church censuses (called stato d'anime) for the whole diocese, including Agerola. I don't have any particular details about these having never studied such records myself. However, if the church marriage processetti are thorough and include the baptism certificates of the bride and groom (and thus parents' names), you could potentially be able to build your whole family tree using these records alone.
5. Cedolari and other records of nobility: Because you have a titled noble in your ancestry, it is possible to take advantage of that and utilize the cedolari records, which are the actual records of the transfer of noble titles. It was definitely necessary for the inheritance of a noble title to be properly documented, so these records will provide genealogical details to explain why the heir is entitled to the title. All these records are at the Archivio di Stato di Napoli, but I have no experience in using them. The medieval records are unfortunately lost for good, but the records from 1639 up to the abolition of feudalism in 1806 are intact.

CherieBrancati

@Joseph99929

Good Evening,

Thank you so much for taking the time in detailing the different sources for continuing my research in Agerola.

I'm still processing my latest discovery......

Cherie

joseph99929

@CherieBrancati It is my pleasure! Good luck! Pre-1809 genealogy is extremely rewarding when we find information, but very difficult and time-consuming!

For the church records, it would not hurt to attempt to contact the parish in Agerola for record lookups (https://www.facebook.com/Unit%C3%A0-Pastorale-Agerola-110427390886717), the worst case is no reply. It appears there are actually 4 parish churches in Agerola, so you'd need to specify S. Maria La Manna (appears to be where your family belonged according to those processetti). You can't build a whole family tree by asking for lookups, but it's a good way to get your foot in the door.

A final word of advice would be to look at public online trees on FamilySearch, Ancestry, Geneanet, etc. Look to see if other people have done research in Agerola that was clearly done using these pre-1809 records. If others have done it before, you can contact those people to ask how they did it and gain guidance specific to Agerola.

CherieBrancati

Thanks, @joseph99929 . I will definitely check out the Facebook link you provided along with the other sites.

I have been in touch with two other individuals via public/private trees on Ancestry. We are ALL researching the same ancestors. One had the Matrimoni Processetti which you translated for me, along with an incredible article on Andrea Brancati: the Agerolese who revived the mercantile genius of the ancient Amalfitans in Naples in the seventeenth century by Aldo Cinque. This article read like a noval, and the history was awesome.

The other individual had a handwritten Italian tree past down to her with names and death dates only. I was able to go back 10 generations in names only, but still need to find the missing pieces.

I will keep on digging......

Again, you have been most helping !!

thank you !!