Stato d’Anime {t means "state of the souls"- a type of parish census record, which lists all of the living members of a household and info such as the age of the individuals and relationships. Originally, it was created in the Papal States as a population census for tax purposes. Taxes were based on the number of working males in the household. Also, if foundlings were taken in by a family, they would be listed in these records with the family.}
Here is an interesting tidbit of information regarding the Sicilian Riveli, in the years before 1748, everyone in the household was listed individually. For the years after 1749, only the landowners were listed.
I have been going page by page through the Stato d’Anime in Carini, Sicily, which then requires searching each page by scanning all the families listed until the surname Misseri pops out and catches my attention.
Here are direct links to the Portal Antenati Carini census records:
Here are direct links to the FamilySearch Carini census records:
A couple of take-a-ways from working with the Sicilian Stato d’Anime:
- By looking at the nucleolus family year after year it help narrow down how long someone live because you can see when someone dropped off the census completely. Which allows you to then go search for a death record (if one is available) or it allows you to set a range of when someone potentially died.
- Also, by finding a family year after year, it helps you find family members that have been missed in the traditional records.
- For example, Carlo Lo Misseri and Filippa Agata Pisano had a large family (9 known children), but when looking at the years when the children were born, I could see there was a gap between 1756 and 1762 with no known children. However, after searching the Stato d’Anime, I have discovered two people that kept showing up for a few years in a row that fit right into that time period. I now have added a new individuals Vincenzo Misseri, Antonino Misseri and Luisa Misseri to the family, with the approximant years of 1759, 1760, and 1765 respectively. And Antonino Misseri then disappeared after the 1762 census, just in time for another child, Antonino Francesco Paolo Misseri, being born in 1762.
- I have also noticed that during the Carini set of Stato d’Anime, which covers the years of 1755-1773, is probably when the "Lo" started to not be attached to the original surname of Lo Misseri. There are so many abbreviations of first names, surnames, titles of individuals, etc., that it is easy to see the transition of surname spelling during this time period. It is not just the Misseri surname; there were many others too.
- Another interesting fact that has been uncovered, are the families that had servants within the household. As for the Misseri's, I have only found one so far that had family help. Again, by looking at the family groups from one year over the next, you can start to see trends - for example:
- Francesco Vincenzo Misseri & Pietra di Maria household
- 1755 - no servant
- 1756 - no servant
- 1757 - Venera Cottone
- 1758 - Venera Cottone
- 1759 - Venera Cottone
- 1760 - Giuseppa Gatto
- 1761 - no servant
- 1762 - Giuseppa Gatto
- 1763 - Giuseppa Gatto
- 1764 - no servant
- 1765 - no servant
- 1766 -
- 1767 -
- 1768 -
- 1769 -
- 1770 -
- 1771 -
- 1772 -
- 1773 -
- Mso. Giuseppe Randazzo & Antonina household
- 1760 - Venera Cottone is working for a new family
- I have also discovered whole new families that I add no idea that they even existed before searching the Stato d’Anime. The problem is that I can't fit them into the greater family tree because I don't have enough information about them; more specifically, I don't have the surname of the wife and I can't match the husbands first name with an individual in the tree because I haven't found a marriage record for the couple.
- So, for the sake of being complete, I have added the new Misseri surname families with as much information that can be gleaned from the census records, which is very little, to the greater family tree with good notes (sources) explaining when and where I found the information about them so I can go back at a later time to see if I can dig up more details about them in other records.
- Here are the new families that I have discovered while searching the Stato d’Anime:
- New family #1 (in 1757)
- Lo Misseri, Maria (most likely the wife of a husband with the Misseri surname; wife's surname is unknown)
- Lo Misseri, Vincenza
- Lo Misseri, Agata
- New Family #2 (in 1761)
- Misseri, Anna (most likely the wife of a husband with the Misseri surname; wife's surname is unknown)
- Misseri, Cesare
- Misseri, Rosa
- Misseri, Anna
- And trust me, I have really, really tried to figure out who these individuals are. I suspect the children listed are people that have no baptism records, which explains why they are totally new groups of individuals, along with no marriage records for the husband and wife. There is the possibility that the people are brother and/or sisters living together, But I have not been able to nail down who they are by searching for the already known families in Carini. So, for the time being, they will be unconnected families in the family tree. It is frustrating but it is also exciting to add people that people have not thought about for more than 250 years. Their souls have been remembered because of the amazing Stato d’Anime Catholic church records.
Soon, I will publish the complete list of Misseri families in the 1755-1773 Stato d’Anime records. Be sure to check back regularly!
