Researching Italian Genealogical Records

The primary research I am conducting at this time is Italian and it centers around two main areas: Carini (just outside of Palermo, Sicily) and Modugno / Grumo Appula (just outside of Bari, Puglia).

I am very lucky to have roots in Italy because FamilySearch has done a wonderful job of filming church records and state civil documents, which are available on FamilySearch and/or on the Italian government site: Antenati.

As someone who doesn't know Italian or Latin, it has been a learning experience to train my brain how to access and read the records. Let me just say, if I can do it, anyone can do the same. It just takes a little practice and dedication.

If you are new to Italian records, please take a look at these three blog posts from Fortify Your Family Tree:

• How to Read Italian Birth Records
• How to Read Italian Marriage Records
• How to Read Italian Death Records

The instructions are fantastic because they really give you everything you need to read and understand what is being told to you in the Italian records.

By the way, a big "thank you" to DiAnn Iamarino Ohama for the wonderful blog: Fortify Your Family Tree.

In addition to the Italian research, I also work on French-Canadian, English and Hungarian/Slovakian genealogy. It is a real mixed bag of places around the world. But all these places that are researched, just makes me a bit more worldly (even if it is just from the living room couch). More to come about these other places.

One Name (actually two: Scorca & de Pinto), One Place (Grumo Appula) Study

I've been wrapping up my One Name, One Place Study, actually two names: Scorca and de Pinto (because it is fairly easy to keep track of two surnames when looking through the indexed records). I don't have the exact number, but I know that I've added about 150 Scorca family members to my Italian tree. I don't know about you, but I think that is a lot of people from a small Italian town, Grumo Appula. By the way, both Scorca and de Pinto are minor families in Grumo Appula. Some indexes can have 10-15 people with the same surname and in that same index, there might not have single Scorca or de Pinto. My family tree already has a couple hundred Scorca's and de Pinto's in it, so adding so many more, just shows how many people are not being remembered in history.

Calendar Month's as Surnames

I am still plugging away and researching the records from Grumo Appula in Bari. I have noticed an interesting thing the clerk or town official who was registering the births of foundlings (babies usually left at the church because the mother decided she could or would not care for the newborn child).

The clerk or town official gave a surname of the month the baby was born in; for example, in 1839, two babies were given the following surnames: Aprile and Ottobre.

• Luigi Aprile, born on 12 April 1839, record #79
• Florinta Ottobre, born on 25 October 1839, record #174

Foundlings are usually given unique names that set them apart from the rest of the local community. But, in all my time of researching various records, I have not come across the names of calendar months being used as surnames.

One Name, One Place Study - #2

It is time to start a new One Name, One Place Study.  I needed a break from all the Grumo Appula records from Antenati and FamilySearch, so I have decided to change to a new region in Italy: the Palermo area of Sicily! This is the other half of my Italian family. Unlike the records of Modugno and Grumo Apppula that are online, the records of Carini are immense. There are baptism, marriage, and death records that go back to the mid-1500s. Can you imagine the sheer volume of records? With this One Name, One Place Study, I have decided that I am going to truly keep it to one name: Misseri. It will make the research so much easier because the Misseri family in Carini was a small family, especially compared to the following families (in no particular order): Anello, Buzzetta, Cottone, Gallina, Genova, Mannino, Randazzo, and Zerillo. I will keep you posted as I move forward with this endeavor. 

One Name, One Place Study - #1

Ok, I'm about to start something I've never done before. Many times, my genealogy research could be enhanced by a comprehensive research log. I do a pretty good job of keeping organized source citations, but never a big and robust log of what I have and haven't done. Well, that is about to change; I'm going to make it a mission to go through each year from 1809 thru 1945. I'm going to essentially do a One Name, One Place Study. The names: Scorca and de Pinto with the place being: Grumo Appula, Bari, Puglia, Italy.

The reason for this place? Well, the records are freely available on the following two site: Antenati and FamilySearch. Most of the years have civil birth, marriage and death records with an index in the back of the book, which will make it easier to search for the two names listed above and then I will keep track of my progress. I will make a note of the records number, the person, date, name of parents, and a link to the actual records. By doing this, I will then have a complete research log of the town of Grumo Appula. I'm not doing every person, just the people with the surnames of Scorca and de Pinto.