[TI] Translation Questions

[Connie Sancetta]

I'm sending this to everyone, since the answers might be useful to others.

"A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Italian Ancestors", by Lynn Nelson (Betterway Books, Cincinnati, OH), first published 1997 in paperback, has just what you want for some of your questions. It's widely available -- I bought it from a Barnes and Noble in northern Virginia. She includes photocopies of typical pages from the Stato Civile with computer-typed Italian versions and then a third version that is the same format, but with English words instead of Italian. There's also a chapter on the old handwriting showing various forms of each letter, and an appendix that gives a lot of the "conditions" (=professions).

>From my own experience: yes, there are standard things that are written in the blank spaces. For instance, in the death records it usually says "nella casa di su abitazione" (roughly "in the house he lived in", as we would say "at his residence"). At the end of most records witnesses were required to sign, and there is frequently a note to the effect that the mayor/clerk has signed on their behalf because "they are unable to write".

I read Italian pretty well, and have grappled with a lot of these old documents. If you would like to send me a copy of the mystery passages, I can take a crack at it for you.

Connie Sancetta

--- On Tue, 5/12/09, Thomas Corso, PhD <tcorso at lecom.edu> wrote:

> From: Thomas Corso, PhD <tcorso at lecom.edu>
> Subject: [TI] Translation Questions
> To: terminiimerese at comunesofitaly.org
> Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 2:52 PM
>  
> Questions 1 - Templates
> I have spent hours trying to translate the documents I that
> I recently
> received.  I have to admit, that I have actually enjoy
> doing this, but,
> does anyone know if there are translation templates that
> lists the text
> portions of the documents already translated.  Was
> there a prior e-mail
> thread on this topic you could direct me to?
> 
> Question 2 - the Mayors of Termini
> Is their a list of Mayors for Termini and the years they
> were in office?
> 
> Question 3 - Professions
> Has anyone compiled a partial list of professions that can
> be found on
> the documents?  The list of Sir names and first names
> already on the
> site has been extremely helpful. (Thanks for putting those
> up.)
> 
> Question 4 - the Handwriting.
> There are some sections, such as my family member's names
> that have
> handwriting after their name.  Some I can make out
> (such as
> "figlio"-"son of" or "fu"-"deceased", others are very hard
> to
> transcribe, let alone, translate.  Along with the
> Templates, are there
> certain types of information that commonly shows up in
> various blank
> spaces?
> 
> If this has been addressed already, sorry for the
> redundancy, let me
> know and I'll dig though the thread achieves.
> 
> Tom
> 
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