Help with processetti records
In the processetti records for the marriage of Rosario Donzelli and Mattia Ferlante (Biscari, 12 November 1829, ordinance #31) there are 4 records that I am struggling to understand.
1) Image 158- September 1799 birth of Rosario (the groom) first born son of Mariano Donzelli and G[?]ulian Sgarlata, married couple. Who/What are the other names listed- Carmelo, [?]o anns, Garressa and Francesca Accapuccio??
2) Image 159- Similarly, I think this is June 1814 birth extract for the bride, Mattia. Her parents were Carmelo Ferlante and Maria Gueli. Who/What are the other names- Philippe and Matthia, Pauly Salerno and Anna Salmi??
3) Image 160- This seems to be the December 1806 death extract for the groom's father Mariano Donzelli. son of Rosario. What was his mother's full name- Angela Leone ?? (There is a another word after Leone I can not decipher). He was spouse of Guilam Sgarlata. What are the ages listed for all?
4) Image 161- Is this a 1770 marriage between Rosario Donzelli and Angela Leone? What is the word "Magister" before Rosario's name? Judge? Am I correct that his parents were Carmeli and Carmela Tarlato? Who were Angela's parents? Ages for all?
I apologize that this is a lot- Thank you in advance, and for all your previous help!!
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Just to help you out in the future as you learn to read and interpret church records (important if ever you will continue this research in-person in the church records back to earlier centuries), I will transcribe and literally translate 1 birth and 1 death. This way you can learn to recognize the key words. Like civil records, church records all follow the same general pattern, although there is a bit more flexibility.
Image 158:
Die vero decimo octavo septembris 1799 ... Baptizavit infantem hac nocte hora prima natus ex Mariano Donzella et Juliana Sgarlata conjugibus cui nomen dedi Rosarius Carmelus, patrini fuerunt...
On 18th day of September 1799 ... baptized infant born this night at 1:00 from Mariano Donzella and Giuliana Sgarlata married couple, whom they named Rosario Carmelo, godparents were...
Image 160:
Die vero decima octava Dicembris 1806, Marianus Donzelli, filius Rosarii et Angela Leone jugalibus, sponsus Juliana Sgarlata, etatis annorum quadraginta quatuor, munitus omnibus sacramentis anima Deo reddidit...
On 18th day of December 1806, Mariano Donzelli, son of Rosario and Angela Leone a married couple, husband of Giuliana Sgarlata, aged 44 years, with all the sacrements, rendered his soul to God...
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Once you have fully exhausted the civil records up to 1820, and this includes finding deaths for all your older ancestors, and also processetti for your ancestors, their siblings, and even their male-line cousins (because processetti occasionally reveal info about the paternal grandfather), then you are ready to proceed with pre-civil research. It looks like you have come a long way at finding and reading civil records, which is great! Do keep it up, particularly with the strategies I described above, because you can trace back to anyone who died after 1820 plus their 2 parents, not to mention, if you are lucky to find an ancestor (perhaps a remarriage), or his sibling, or his cousin who married at an advanced age, their processetti would be a goldmine of old information. I have seen cases where an ancestor remarries in 1820 at 60 years old, so therefore the processetti includes a death record of the paternal grandfather born in 1700 with parents' names!
Now, moving to pre-civil records, there are 2 main sources: the church records and the riveli records.
- Church Records
Church records don't require an introduction, as there's plenty written about them online. Unfortunately, your area of Sicily has not been digitized and so any research will necessarily need to be done in person, or by corresponding with the parish church or parish priest. You are absolutely right that this is met with varying degrees of success. Church records in Italy are not considered public record, but are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the local parish priest. Personally, I feel that sending a letter is outdated, and an email or even Facebook message to the priest or to the church Facebook page is sufficient, but the problem is you cannot predict in advance what a particular priest will respond more favorably to. It's impossible to build a whole tree back to the 1500s by corresponding back-and-forth, but corresponding for the initial lookups is a good way to build a relationship and potentially earn the required trust to be granted permission to study the books in-person.
Hiring a professional genealogist based in the area is not a bad option, all things considered, because they will be able to find more in less time due to their experience reading the church records, and the cost is normally not too far-removed from what travel would cost. I can't recommend anyone in Ragusa province particularly, but having worked with professional genealogists for my own needs, the key is to find someone local.
A final word of advice on this front is to scour online trees, on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Geneanet, etc, and see if anyone clearly has researched using church records in your town before (if they have gone back further than would otherwise be possible). If you find such a person, you can ask them how they did it, and gain valuable insight. In my own case, by doing this, I discovered someone had already visited and privately photographed all the church records in one of my ancestral towns!
- Riveli records
Riveli records are a bit less-known, but they are hugely important for pre-1800 genealogy in Sicily! These are tax records that span from the late 1500s to mid 1700s, but they do provide census-type information as well (name of taxpayer, his age, his parents' names, his wife's name, his children's names, etc). What's wonderful is that these are all online on the FamilySearch Catalog! To find them you have to use the Catalog search, not the Records search on FamilySearch. Here are the records for your town: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/747261
Notice they also claim to have records for 1811-1816, but those ones are not the same, these are purely financial records, and do not contain any genealogical information.
So, the most recent census for your town will be 1747, which is quite a gap to bridge from 1820, but not an impossible one! In fact, in this very processetti, you have found Rosario Donzelli who was born circa 1737, and therefore should be living on this census with his parents Carmelo and Carmela. So, once you've exhausted civil records, you should definitely look at riveli records for any ancestors born (or with parents married) prior to 1747 to gain additional information!
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@DebbieRose Under the law at the time, for the period 1820-1865, it was definitely mandatory to include the birth records of the spouses, death record of the parents and paternal grandfather (except in the case where the father is alive in which case no deaths are needed), death record of the ex-spouse (if widowed). That said, it was not necessarily always practiced to the letter, so there is some luck involved too. The list of the documents included in the processetti should be on the 2nd page of the actual marriage record.
I would find it shocking that the processetti of a widower not at least give the proof of death of the ex-spouse. Perhaps the processetti file was simply lost or was too damaged for them to digitize.
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Processetti records will typically include births of spouses, death of parents, sometimes death of paternal grandfathers. When the birth or death happened prior to 1820, rather than a civil certificate, you will get a church certificate. In this way, processetti records can unlock information otherwise only available in the church records! Church certificates are of course written in Latin, including the given names. It is customary to translate the given names back to Italian when studying or recording this data.
To answer your questions:
- Indeed birthdate is 18 Sep 1799. Mother is Giuliana Sgarlata (should be confirmable on the marriage record in 1829). The child was named Rosario Carmelo. It was customary in the 1700s to give multiple names to children at baptism, of which only 1 was used in adult life. The names after "PP fue" - "patrini fuerunt" (godparents were) are the godparents.
- Same here. Birthdate 12 Jun 1814, parents Carmelo Ferlante and Maria Gueli (should be confirmable using the marriage record), and her given name was Filippa Mattia. As you can see, the name used in adult life was not necessarily the first of the given names!
- Yes, this is the death of the father of the groom. In fact, it's the same death you asked about a few days ago. 18 Dec 1806, died Mariano Donzelli, father Rosario, mother Angela Leone, wife Giuliana Sgarlata (which we already knew), aged 44
- This is the death of the paternal grandfather of the groom, Rosario. 17 Dec 1770, Rosario Donzella, son of Carmelo and of Carmela Tarlato, husband of Angela Leone, aged 37. The title Magister in Latin or Mastro in Italian means master craftsman, tailor, carpenter, that kind of profession.
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Thank you! These are the first records that I have seen double names so your explanation is very helpful, along with your explanation of the abbreviation for godparents. Once again, thank you for all the help you have been providing!
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Thank you so much for the transcription and translation of the birth and death!
I do believe I'm close to the point in my research where to go further back I would need to see the church records. I know that FamilySearch has some information on writing to the Parish/Priest for Church Records, but it sounds like this is met with varying degrees of success. I would think that it is worth trying, but if you have any insights I'd very much appreciate it. Perhaps it's best to hire someone in Italy (in this case Sicily)?
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Your insights are terrific. Also, I looked in the catalog months ago and did not remember, nor know anything, of the Riveli records- so this definitely gives me another line of research (along with finishing up on all your other points) to look into before I look at the pre-civil records era. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
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Sorry... another question to clarify things: Rosario Donzelli did actually marry a second time, and I had looked at his Processetti, but if I was reading the records correctly it seemed that not only was there no information about his parents (there was more in his first marriage procesetti file), but also nothing I could see of his first wife's death. I will reread the records, but is it accurate to say that it was not required to include the death of parents, paternal grandfathers, etc. and that it's a bit of luck as to what is included?
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