Friday, January 4, 2013

Working with Damaged Records

The death record below is a good example of an Italian record where ink bleed-through and blotting made the translation of the document more difficult.  Unfortunately, this is all too common.

I have abstracted all legible and/or genealogically pertinent information in the record below.  Anything in square brackets are my insertions.  See if you can follow my translation.  It is only through practice with multiple records that the translation process will become easier.

Death Record of Teresa d'Annista

The record was number 103 on page 53 of the 1826 of birth register  of Polizzi [Generosa, Italy].  Teresa's death was reported to the Polizzi town hall on 16 September 1826 at 3:00 p.m.  Reporting her death was Mariano Virga, age forty, a peasant farmer, who resides in the [? quarter of] San Giovanni as well as Domenico Barrano, age thirty, a peasant farmer, who resides in the quarter of Santa Maria Maggiore [near the Mother Church].

They hereby declared that on the 16th day of September of the current year Teresa d'Annista died in her home at the age of three months and ten days.  Teresa was born in Polizzi, was a servant, and resided in the quarter of Sant'Orsola.  She was the daughter of the deceased Bartolomeo [d'Annista] and Angela Indova___ [?] , a married couple who resided in the same [in the quarter of Sant'Orsola.  Note that this child was given the same occupation her father held before his death.]  Neither of the witnesses were literate.