Translation Request

CatherineWinward1

On some of the death certificates that I am reading there is this sentence, Felice Caruso Germano dell defunto. I looked up the translation for germano expecting it to be a brother or cousin or something. Instead it says, German or mallard. I am pretty sure that doesn't work in this case. What would germano mean in this situation. Thanks Cathy

SantaNinfa

Hi

Context is everything. Please provide a link to one of them where you’ve seen this. As you have it written, it indicates Germano is part of his name, i.e. Felice Caruso Germano of the deceased … a given name for his father usually follows.

I’d need to see the whole document to provide a more accurate answer.

Cousin Vinny

Often in older Italian records you see the phrase "fratello germano" which means full blooded brothers. Germano is an adjective in that context but it is also a noun meaning brother. See the second Italian definition below.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/germano

https://www.dizionario-italiano.it/dizionario-italiano.php?parola=germano

CatherineWinward1

Thanks for your help. The document was found at the family search library Film 1916276 page 854. It is a death record in Platania, Nicastro, Calabria of Angela Conte. One of the witnesses, Pasquale Conte Germano dell defunto

Cousin Vinny

https://community.familysearch.org/discussion/comment/570267#Comment_570267

A link is much more preferable like this:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95QL-J4H?cat=784868&i=853

But it's not viewable at home.

SantaNinfa

@CatherineWinward1

I agree with Vinny - in this context it means brother of the deceased. If you look at the records both before and after that record, you can see that in this town, the relationship to the deceased is often included after the reporting individual's name. So, … zio del defunto, …germano della defunta, …cognato della defunta, etc.