Death Records: A Love Hate Relationship

Recently I have been trying to help someone at one of my Family History Centers who is new to Italian records. She was confused because things were not making sense. Things were not making sense because she was tracing the wrong family. Hence, this blog post.
I learned early that death records can provide the place of birth, the parent's names and more. Many United States death records also provide a cause of death. I love death records! The biggest problem with death records is, the information contained on them is provided by another person. Although I will be using Italian examples, most of the content here works with American records also.

This is the death record of my paternal second great grandmother, Caterina Nicastro. According to this death record (atti di morte or act of death) Caterina died at the age of 80 in November of 1904. The record identifies her as the wife of Filippo Napolitano so we know we have the correct Caterina Nicastro. The record also states that her father was the late Giuseppe and her mother was Carmela Alfano. Great! So now we have the parents of Caterina, right? Wrong! The first question I had when I found this record was how can Caterina's mother still be living when Caterina was 80 years old? The fact is Carmela Alfano was only 9 years older than Caterina. Next we look at the people who reported her death. Pasquale Arturi, age 40 and Emilio Arturi, age 27 reported the death. Two of Caterina's daughters married men named Arturi, however, neither of these men were close family members to her son in laws. Pasquale was a 2nd cousin to one of her son in laws. So, how did they know Caterina's parent's names? The answer may be that they guessed. If they did, they guessed incorrectly. Caterina was actually 75 years old when she died, not 80. Her father was actually the late Francesco Nicasto and her mother was the late Isabella Fullone. The only correct information on this record is the date and her name. So, how do I know this? Her marriage, processetti and birth records.

This is a portion of Caterina's marriage record that clearly shows her (still living) parent's names. Both Caterina and her parents were present so we can assume that this record is correct, however, her birth record provides further confirmation.
My own grandfather's death record was incorrect. His son reported the death, however, his children never knew his true age nor where in Italy he was born. I love death records but I never trust them by themselves.

Surname Saturday - Cefali/Cefaly of Cortale, Italia

I have written in the past about discovering a cousin who was an artist in Tropea named Giuseppe Naso. Years ago when I was researching Cortale in Calabria, the town my grandmother was born in, I read about an artist who was born there named Andrea Cefaly. Pictured here is a statue he made that rests outside the church Santa Maria Cattolica Maggiore in Cortale. Andrea Cefaly (1827-1907) is known more for his paintings than his sculptures and created one painting that hangs in the Louvre in Paris. But this sculpture is really quite interesting because it is a political statement that holds a key to the identity of this family as well as an interesting period in Italian history - the unification. He sculpted it around 1870 and named it "Italia". The statue of a woman represents Italy and you will notice her back is to the church. This was a political statement representing the separation of politics from faith. It was a strong and popular sentiment around the time of the unification of Italy. The family of Andrea Cefaly supported this movement with all their hearts and the father of Andrea, Domenico was also a supporter of a unified Italy, with the separation of church and state. The grandson of Andrea, also named Andrea (referred to as Andrea Jr.) was also an artist.

Years after first reading about the famous Cefaly family, I found the 1811 marriage act of my third great grandparents Antonio Frontera and Domenica Schinnea. This document listed Domenica Schinnea's mother as Vittoria Cefali. I wondered if there was any relationship to the more famous Cefaly family but I assumed I would never know since Vittoria was born about 1754, long before civil records were kept. I also assumed there was probably no connection since the names were spelled differently.

This week while extracting the early marriages that occurred in Cortale I made 2 discoveries. The most exciting discovery was the marriage record of Vittoria Cefali to a second husband named Giuseppe Cefali. This document provided me with the names and dates of death of Vittoria's parents. Vittoria's father was Giuseppe Cefali who died in Cortale on 7 October 1773. Her mother was Giulia Pellegrino and she died 8 September 1766. I will probably never know their parent's names. The second discovery was while reading each marriage record that occurred between 1809 and 1819 there were many Cefali marriages but not a single marriage that contained the spelling Cefaly. It is currently my belief that the spelling of the surname changed. That is not unusual and I found many changes to surnames in my grandfather's town. A review of more records is needed to be certain. I will also need to examine the early allegati records and will need a lot of luck to obtain enough information on the Cefali families if the 18th century. For now, I am happy I have the names and dates of death of Vittoria Cefali's parents. Still, I cannot wait until I can read more records on Tuesday!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Italian Processetti Records

My favorite of all Italian records are processetti or allegati records. If you are lucky, you can obtain 3 generations of your direct line ancestors with a single series of processetti documents for one couple. Processetti documents are a series of documents that was required to be provided to the Municipio when a couple was completing their marriage banns. Before a couple could marry, marriage banns had to be posted for 3 consecutive weeks in a public place (usually the municipio) before a couple could get married. This practice is still law in Italy, however, today many towns post the pubblicazioni on their websites. When a couple would go to the municipio to complete their first marriage bann, they were required to bring in a series of documents that vary depending on their personal circumstances. The documents are always noted on their marriage bann. These series of documents always include either a record of baptism or atto di nati (birth act) for both the bride and groom. Other documents that are provided depend on their individual circumstances. If one parent was deceased prior to the date the first marriage bann was posted, that parent's atto di morte was included. Because the atto di morte lists the names of the parents of the deceased, it can be a quick way to obtain the names of another generation. If both parents were deceased, the grandparents appeared at the municipio, however, if they were also deceased it is highly likely their death act were also included. If the bride was under the age of 18 and the groom was under the age of 21, they were considered minors. In the event an orphaned minor married, a family counsel meeting was held with 3 men of each parent's family who had to agree that the marriage would be in the best interest of the minor child. Many other documents may be found in these series of records which are the richest in genealogical information in all the available records (in my opinion).