[TI] Question about Sacramental Records

[Gloria Otto]

Yes Christine. Church Records do exist within the churches and if you are
lucky, the parish priest will be willing to help you find all you want to
know about your ancestors' records. I think it may be the churches that are
active now. For many of us, the Duomo has our ancestors' records. It works
best in person when you are with a relative visiting in Termini or if a
relative will obtain the records for you. The Duomo has e-mailed me extracts
of baptismal records in the past but lately, I get no response for my
requests. How ever they are probably sitting on top of the filing cabinet
until someone can get to them or you show up in person. 

At the Duomo a genealogist the priest knows can look up documents for you.
The only problem is arranging a meeting. He often fails to show up, I'm not
sure why. If you can speak Italian it would help. How I wish I could. It was
so difficult to communicate about records that I am not sure what the
problem was. If you look on Laura's database you will see the baptismal
records from the oldest book at the Duomo that Chuck and I filmed for Fr
Anthony in 2002 and I am sure it would not have happened if Fr Anthony was
not present. 

The clerk looked up one document for me from a note I gave him. But again,
he needs the genealogist to find the record for him. He wrote the
information from the record on a scrap paper which was given to me several
days later.

Actually it may be wise to only allow a few people to look up the records.
The books are so old and should be handled as infrequently as possible. The
genealogist found several records for me and they are breathtaking to look
at. It is hard to describe the way I felt when I saw them. They are written
in an old Italian or Sicilian mixed with Latin with such an interesting
scribe made with ink and a quill. I imagine it like the movies I have seen
of the monks carefully recording or writing books. Hope this helps.
Gloria

-----Original Message-----
From: terminiimerese-bounces at comunesofitaly.org
[mailto:terminiimerese-bounces at comunesofitaly.org] On Behalf Of Christine
Comella
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:44 PM
To: terminiimerese at comunesofitaly.org
Subject: [TI] Question about Sacramental Records

Hello:

The whole discussion on sacramental records brings up
interesting questions related to Termini-Imerese
genealogy research.

Does anyone know what records for our ancestors exist
within churches in TI? I'm not asking if they can be
accessed, just if anyone knows of their existence and
how far back they go. 

Also, on the www.termini-imerese.org website, Chuck
and Gloria Otto provided the indices to San Nicola di
Bari baptisms from 1542 to 1548. How was that managed?

Christine Comella



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