[TI] Corso name in Termini

[Laura Johnson]

See my notes interspersed below:

Thomas Corso, PhD wrote:
> Dear TI group, I have an academic challenge for you all.
>
> I would really like to have the more critical members of our group
> securitize my logic and let me know what parts of my logic and
> assumptions you disagree with or if you can suggest more accurate
> estimates.  
>
> I apologize for the scientist part of me, but Last night I did an
> internet search of all the Corso records in the Termini database between
> 1820 and 1910.  There are now over 4000 records.  (Although I did this
> for Corso's, I am extending the logic for any family from Termini).
>  
> So to estimate how many different Corso families there were in Termini
> during this time, I limited the search to how many male Corso's got
> married in this time span and there were 168.  (Please don't ask me how
> long it took me to counts these, my wife thought I was nuts.)
>   
There are actually 172 marriages were for males with the surname of Corso
> Since this number spans about 3 generations and a large number of these
> families left Termini and moved to Palermo, northern Italy, the U.S. and
> other places after 1850 (at least part of my Corso line moved to Palermo
> in 1850), I then looked only at about one generation of names (30
> years), limiting it to between 1820 and 1850.  The number of male Corso
> marriages was 41 in this 30 year span, so this is my estimate of how
> many Corso Families there were in Termini in the mid 1800's.  
>   
I don't agree that it only spans 3 generations.  One of those Corso 
males married in early 1820's, had a son who married in the late 
1840's.  That son had a son who married in the early 1870's who had a 
son who married in the lat 1890's.  It is theoretically possibly to have 
had 5 or more generations if the first marriage took place in 1820 and 
giving a 20 year span, then 1840, 1860, 1880, 1900 would follow giving 
you  5 generations easily.

Based on the data I have entered so far, the age at time of first 
marriage is much closer to 20 than 30.  In my best estimate, I would say 
the average at is 22 to 23 for the first marriage.

In the time frame of 1820 to 1850, there are 47 male Corso 
marriages...........4 of which the groom was a widower and it was his 
second marriage.

I don't think you can accurately state that was the number of Corso 
families at that time.  You are not taking into consideration Corso 
males who were married  before 1820 who were still living during this 
time frame and also having children during this time frame
>  
> I noticed that on average, each family produced about 8-12 kids, but due
> to cholera only about 4 of them ever lived long enough to marry and thus
> there were only about 2 males that lived long enough to carry the family
> name forward per generation.  
I don't see the estimate being 8-12 children being an overall average.  
Based on the data that I have entered so far (births and deaths from 
1820 thru 1846 and the marriages from 1820 thru 1850 as well as the 
baptismal documents from 1816- 1819), I don't think the average is that 
high.  I am seeing an average of closer to 6 -7 children per family.   I 
see many families who had only 1 or 2 children

NOTE:  all of my observations regarding the cholera deaths are for ALL 
Corso - not just male Corso's.  The Cholera deaths took a toll on the 
families in Termini.  There were1874 deaths in 6 weeks.  BUT those 
deaths were NOT mainly of children.  There were only 244 deaths for 
people under age 20 during the cholera epidemic. 

To further dismay your theory, of those 244 children under the age of 
20, only 12 are Corso.  Secondly, there were only 25 Corso's (including 
those 12 children) who died in the epidemic.
> I would then estimate (going at about 30
> years per generation) that there would have been about 80 Corso families
> by 1880 and 160 by 1910.  Add these together and we have 280 total
> (during this 3 generation period).  I only found 168, the difference
> implying that about 112 families left Termini during this time.
>   
You are basing this on the theory that each family had at least 2 male 
children that grew up and married.  I don't see this as being as a 
logical conclusion.  You have to figure in that there were families that 
only had girls which takes them out of the equation.  You also have to 
figure in the high infant mortality rate that some of those families 
probably never had a son reach adulthood as well.   There were also many 
families who were childless
> Going the other direction, my estimate is that these 40 families in the
> mid 1800's are actually the extension of about 20 families living in
> Termini around 1820.  If my logic is correct, then there would be about
> 10 Corso families in the late 1700's and about 5 in the mid 1700's.  
>
> I am only guessing, but I put forth the hypothesis that there was a
> single Corso family in Termini around 1600.  This would make all Termini
> Corso's no father apart than maybe 12th to 15th Cousins.  I also have
> reason to believe, based on what I have read that family names did not
> become common until around 1500-1600.
>   
Based on the data that is available to us at this time, I don't think 
you can make that assumption. 

First, if you look at the 1542-48 baptisms, there are 5 Corso's baptized 
in that time frame so that dispells the ONE Corso family theory.

Secondly, if you were to look at the births per year (which I have 
notated easily for anyone to see on the following page:  
http://www.termini-imerese.org/IndicesAvailable.htm), you will see that 
the births in the 1820's-1850's averaged close to 500 per year.  The 
baptismal documents (FROM ONLY THE DUOMO) appear to be in the 200+ range.  

NOTE:  NOT all of the baptisms took place that the Duomo or reported to 
the Duomo.  This quickly became apparent when I did the 1820 thru 182 
baptismal documents as to the number of church documents versus  the 
number of civil documents.  It appears to be close to a 40% rate of 
those civil documents were not recorded at the Duomo.  So based on this 
assumption, it is also possible that there were more than 5 Corso 
baptisms in the time frame of 1842-48 and that it was more likely 7 
Corso children baptized in that time frame.
> I just went out on a limb here and I think I hear the branch cracking.
> I am not a historian and I am very much outside my field of expertise,
> but let me know your thoughts about my logic here.  I am hoping someone
> out there that actually does know what they are talking about could shed
> light on my ideas and set me straight.
>
> Tom  
>
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