Women in Italian Records

Maiden and family names
In the US, and many other countries, when a woman marries, the tendency is to take the husband’s name (please do not take issue, offense, or anything emotional with regard to this posting — I am only relating my experiences searching family history documents).  Today, whether or not the husband’s name is used is a choice the wife can make one way or the other. 

In Italy (as with many other countries), women retained and used their maiden name for civil and legal purposes.  When researching your family in archives, ship manifests, etc., it is important to remember this custom.  Many times you will be searching records for your grandmother, great-grandmother, etc using her married name and not finding her.  Try using her maiden name — I have seen many success stories wherein (names are fictitious) someone is searching for great-grandma Maria Fellin, wife of Giuseppe Fellin, and mother of Arcangelo Fellin.  No luck.  But, searching for Maria Endrizzi (maiden name), she is found on the manifest accompanied by son Arcangelo Fellin, with a destination of Pennsylvania to join husband Giuseppe Fellin.  Subsequent trips back home to visit family will likely have her listed as Maria Fellin,  based on the naming conventions in the US.

The use of maiden names in Trentino birth and marriage records can provide significant leads to additional generations.  Most often, not only will the names of child’s father and mother (with maiden name) be given, but also the names of the father’s and mother’s parents.  Thus, this one entry will give the names of parents and grandparents, including the maiden names of the grandmothers.  From here, cross-checking the parents and grandparents with marriage records will lead to even more information (don’t forget that in small Trentino villages there was not much migration outside the area until the late 1800′s)..

Birth records
A large number of birth records in Trentino during the 1800s were preprinted templates, with columns for noting whether the child was legitimate or illegitimate (the birth, marriage, death records were maintained by the church for hundreds of years).  If a child was illegitimate in the eyes of the church (e.g. parents either not married or not married in a church), a mark was made in the “illegitimate” column.  A common practice (one we would see today as discriminatory) was to record the mother’s name, but not the father’s name.  This would often lead family history researchers to a serious stumbling block or a deadend in tracing their ancestry.

Prior to the use of preprinted templates, birth records were handwritten in date order, and usually consisted of a paragraph of data.  Often these records were even more “double-standard” than the later records.  For example, one of my ancestors was born in the village of Castello di Fiumme in 1806.  Her birth record (in Latin) not only mentioned she was illegitimate and omitted the father’s name, but of the eleven births record on that handwritten page, hers was the only record written upside down !!!!!   There were subsequent births, and each was marked as “illegitimate”.  Was she actually unmarried or married but not in church?  I don’t know, and other than not having the father’s name for purposes of further research, not an issue.  A copy (albeit a very poor one) of that record is shown below. 

Birth record - 1806

 
Related posts:
Using Trentino Church Records

Pancheri family and Castel Altaguardia

Castel Altaguardia - Photo courtesy of Gene Pancheri

Castel (castle) Altaguardia was built c. 13th century in the northwestern portion of Val di Non near its intersection with Val di Sole.  The castle was sacked during the Peasant Rebellion of 1407, and placed under seige during the Peaseant Revolt (“Rustic War”) of 1525.   Both revolts were by contadini (farmers and sharecroppers), who were on the lowest ends of the social scale, and bore the burden of taxes and payments of tribute imposed by the nobles (the Prince-Bishop, his vassals, and valvasori).  Adding fuel to the reasons for the revolts, was the fact that nobles had many privileges, powers and exemption from those taxes. 

The castle was owned by members of the noble Thun dynasty, and since the Pancheri’s remained at the castle throughout the 1525 revolt and after, this leads to the conclusion that the Pancheri’s were loyal to the Thuns.  Castel Altaguardia was continuously inhabited until sustantially destroyed by a deliberately set fire in 1639.  Rebuilt, it was used until c. 1780, and subsequently abandoned after being severely damaged in storms.  During its years of use, members of the Pancheri families served as overseers (“captains”) and managers of the castle for almost two centuries.  The first Pancheri documented as a “captain” of the castle was Michele Pancheri (born abt 1492 – died 1586) – my 11th great-grandfather.

The Pancheri families have a long history in Trentino, especially in the area of a cluster of tiny villages known as Bresimo (e.g. Samoclevo, Baselga).  I have been told that the earliest local record documenting the Pancheri name dates to 1412.  These villages were home to generations of the Pancheri’s, especially after the abandonment of Castel Altaguardia.   Many of the male Pancheri’s were notaries (“notaio“) during the 15th-17th centuries.  Unlike the notary in the US, a “notaio” was similar to a lawyer, and oversaw all wills, land transfers, and governmental procedures.  Although not actually of the noble class, they were addressed as if they were of that class.

After abandonment of Castel Altaguardia, it appears that the Pancheri’s lost much of their wealth.  Coupled with the economic hardships of the late 1800′s, this factor was a leading cause for migration of large numbers of Pancheri’s to the US began in the late 1880′s.  Many of them emigrated to the area of Vulcan, Michigan where descendents are still present today.  There is a listing of a few Pancheri’s on my post “Emigrants from Bresimo to the United States ”.   In addition to viewing the microfilmed records for Bresimo, more information about Pancheri ancestry can be obtained on the FamilySearch website, which has listings for about 1400 individuals.

Surnames in Trentino

Surnames did not arise in Trentino until sometime during the early to mid 1500′s — moreso after the 1564 Council of Trent which ordered use of surnames for each individual.  Until the use of surnames, a person was generally known by his first name and a reference to his father (I am not sure if this was true for females as well).   For example, “Giuseppe, di Francesco” or “Giuseppe, son of Francesco”. 

Given the fact that there were not very many first names in use, this method of identification proved very awkward as village populations increased.  As an extension of the above father-son method of assigning surnames, early surnames were often developed by using a combination of the person’ s first name and father’s first name.  Thus, in this example, Giuseppe would become known as Giuseppe Difrancesco.

Surnames also developed based on first names only, which were often based on early Latin versions, e.g.
Pinamontus —> Pinamonti
Endrigi —> Endrizzi
Petrus/Pietro —> Pedri, Pedron
Matteus —> Mattevi

Surnames were also developed based on a personal characteristic, residence, occupation, etc.  Examples:

Rossi = a person with red hair
Rizzi = a person with curly hair
Torresani and Dallatorre = a person who owned, lived, worked, etc in a tower (“torre“)
Sartori = person who was a tailor

Name Changes in America
Often, when emigrating to the US, a person’s name was “Americanized” - sometimes by choice, sometimes due to handwriting, sometimes due to pronunciation (for example, the letter “i” is pronounced “eee” in Italian, the combination “ch” is pronounced like the English “K” which is very rarely found in Italian writings).  Because of the pronunciation by immigrants upon their boarding a ship in Europe or arriving at Ellis Island, it was common for immigration officials to write surnames phonetically as pronounced by the immigrant.  Most of the manifests were written at the departure point (for emigrants from Trentino one of the main departure points was Le Havre, France).  This practice has been a stumbling block to many researchers trying to find their ancestors’ ship arrival manifests.

Name changes I have seen include:
Covi —-> Covey
Chini —-> Kinney, Keenay
Ferrari —-> Ferrary
Iob or Job —-> Yob, Jobe
Stancher —-> Stanker
Bertagnolli —-> Berry (apparently a voluntary change)
Battocletti —-> Bartley
Franch —-> Frank, Franks
Vielmetti —-> Wilmetti

Trentino village churches and your ancestors

Each village in Trentino has one or more churches.  In addition to religous functions, the village church also served social and civil purposes.   Since the early 1600s, the village church was the recordkeeper for family events.  Handwritten birth, marriage, and death registers have survived in a large number of the villages, many dating to the 1500′s.  Most often, these church records are the only source of information available to family researchers.  Sadly though, registers in more than a few villages were destroyed.  In the post Using Trentino Church Records, I gave a brief overview of the information that can be found in the church records.  If all you are interested in is collecting names and dates, then the church registers are enough.  But, taking time to research the village church will give you an insight to your ancestor’s village and daily life.

For example, the photo above is the former church of San Lorenzo in the village of Cunevo (in Val di Non), Trentino.  The provincial archives contain a document from the year 1327 referring to a small chapel in Cunevo called Sancti Laurenti.   Since it was common for our ancestors to remain in the same village for many generations, you can visualize generations of ancestors walking to the same church for hundreds of years. 

Eventually, as the village grew, San Lorenzo was too small to serve the community, and a new church was built in the late 1800s.  Abandoned for decades, the structure was used as a warehouse, and then as a field kitchen for Austro-Hungarian army troops during World War I.  This tells you that during the war years troops were fed and roamed throughout the village, likely mingling with your ancestors.

More recently, San Lorenzo underwent a restoration (one of many over the course of its existence), and the foundation of an ancient altar was uncovered.  Unfortunately, during the restoration and improvement of the grounds, many tombstones in the small cemetery around the church walls were damaged or destroyed.  Those that survived were placed against the old wall surrounding the church (photo below), while those that were heavily damaged (including that of my grandparents) were buried.  These old tombstones can be a source of valuable information (the post Tombstone Photographs  illustrates the type of information often available) .

If you visit your ancestral village, there will be old and new structures.  Each year, the old wood and stone houses either vanish or are rebuilt.  As time passes, they will eventually lose the character they had during your ancestors’ time.  One structure that  usually survives intact is the village church.  Although spruced up, they still retain a strong connection to how they looked when your ancestor worshipped or celebrated events.  Below is an interior view of San Lorenzo.  Walking about the interior, you can visualize your ancestor doing the same and view the same things he or she did (although reconstructed).

Tombstone Photographs

Prior to the early 1900′s, residents of the small villages in Trentino tended to remain there for many generations, marrying residents of their own or nearby villages.  Some of the cemeteries in Trentino are very old and therefore could be the resting place of three or four generations of the same family.  This does not mean that the tombstones of all the generations will still be available.  Due to space limitations, some areas recycle graves after a set period of years (e.g. 50), so older tombstones may or may not exist.  In some cases, I have seen photos of cemeteries where older tombstones were removed and simply leaned against the ancient cemetery walls. 

For those tombstones that are available to researchers, we can often find information about our families that would not appear on tombstones in the U.S.  For example, many of the more recent tombstones bear ceramic or otherwise weather-protected photographs of the deceased.    In some cases, these may be the only photographs of a grandparent or great-grandparent in existance.  Additionally, since it was (and still is) common for women in Italy to retain their maiden names for all legal and civic purposes, maiden names often appear on the tombstones.

In the above tombstone, in addition to names and photographs of the deceased, we see that Fortunata’s maiden name is Tame (n= nata = born).  Under Primo’s name is inscribed “disperso in guerra 1912” , which indicates that he was born in 1912, and missing during wartime (World War II). 

In the tombstone below, we are shown photographs of the deceased, their dates of birth (n = nata = born), death (m = morto = died), and the wife’s maiden name.

As you can see, the Italian customs of using photos and other information can provide leads to our research.  Online friends and contacts in our ancestral villages can be sources of these photographs, as can professional researchers.  Some areas have specific rules about taking such photos, so it would be wise to inquire before asking someone to take those photographs.  Generally, being courteous and asking permission will be enough.

Using naturalization documents in research

Declaration of intent to become a US citizen (1936) – Giuseppe Iob

After spending many years in the United States, many of our ancestors from Trentino petitioned to become US citizens.  Normally, one of the prerequisites in the naturalization process was to obtain information about the applicant’s original emigration to the US.  When verifiying the applicant’s arrival to the US, the Immigration Service viewed the ship arrival manifest, and made notations on the manifest, giving the date and jurisdiction where an application for citizenship was made.  These notations are often found on the microfilmed Ellis Island passenger manifests. Thus, if you are able to locate and view your ancestor’s arrival manifest and see a series of handwritten numbers on the line bearing your ancestor’s information, that is a clue to the date and place where preliminary naturalization papers were filed. 

Another clue to whether or not your ancestor was natualized is the census.  Since most of our Trentino ancestors arrived between 1890 and 1920′s, they can usually be found on one or more census documents.  There is usually a column asking about citizenship — for foreign born individuals, there is usually a “al” (alien), “na” (naturalized), or “pa” (papers starting the naturalization process have been filed. 

If neither of these sources provide a clue about naturalization, then search the online databases.  These databases (e.g. Ancestry.com and Fold3.com — formerly known as Footnote.com) can be searched by name, keyword (such as your ancestral village, etc), and allow you to obtain immediate digital copies of  documents found.  Although most of the online resources require a paid subscription, you can generally access the databases free through your local public or college library either onsite or via your home internet connection.

The documents used to obtain citizenship are often a treasure trove of information.   For example, in the above document, we note the following information for Giuseppe Iob:

 

• date and place of birth (Cunevo),
• current residence,
• occupation (bartender), 
• description (has burn scar),
• family members,
• marital status (divorced),
• date and place of marriage,
• emigration date, place, and ship,
• signature

 The document above is a Declaration of Intent to become a US citizen.  Other documents used in the process will often contain even more information.  Using these documents can fill in many gaps in your research and trace an ancestor’s movements.

 

 

Using Trentino church records

During the time of our grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, the local churches in Trentino were the recordkeepers for birth, marriage, and death events.  Generally, meticulous records were maintained by the parish priests in handwritten church registers.  Absent destruction due to fire, flood, war, or other calamity, records can sometimes be available to the late 1500′s.  From the early 1800′s forward, the records are generally written in Italian, with the earlier records written in Latin.  The records for some areas on northern Trentino will be written in German.

Although you can (with some persistance and advance planning) view the original records on site at the local village church (assuming the local parish approves), most of these records have been microfilmed, and are available for viewing at branches of the LDS Family History Centers throughout the US, and often through your local public library.  See my previous post  Trentino Vital Records on Microfilm.   Valuable information can be gathered from the microfilmed documents.  For example, below is a copy of my great-great-grandfather’s marriage record to his first wife (she died of typhus less than 9 months later).  Under the image is an explanation of the type of information that can be found (click on the image for a larger version).

On 15 December 1834, in the parish church, Gio’Batta Iob, age 19 and living at house #23, married Teresa Vilot, age 30, who lived in Flavon.  Gio’ Batta’s father was also named Gio’ Batta Iob, who in turn was the son of the late Gio’ Batta Iob sicher.  Gio’ Batta’s mother was Maddalena Iob, daughter of Domenico Iob remus of Cunevo.  The bride (Teresa) was the daughter of the late Giovanni Vilot and Teresa Eccher, of Flavon.  In addition, the document states that Gio’ Batta had to obtain a dispensation because there were second and third degrees of blood relationship between him and the bride. He also had to obtain permission to marry because he was a minor.

Thus, this one document gives us information for three generations — the groom’s name and address (house numbers without street names were used in that era), his father’s and grandfather’s names, his mother’s maiden name (also Iob — it was common in small villages for the bride and groom to have the same last name), and the name of his maternal grandfather.  In each case, we are able to ascertain whether (on the date of Gio Batta’s wedding) the parent or grandparent was still living (the word “fu” in the document means the person was deceased).  Also shown was the branch of Iob’s that his mother and father belonged to (sicher and remus).  In small villages, branch names were used to distinguish between the clans since large percentages of the residents had the same surnames. 

Although many villages have these documents for additional generations, the records for Cunevo were destroyed in an 1802 fire.  Hopefully yours still survive.