Sunday, August 25, 2013

Online Database of Available Ecclesiastical Records - La Memoria Dei Sacramenti

An exciting new initiative is making Italian ecclesiastical records more easily available and found.  The website is called La Memoria dei Sacramenti and is an interdiocese initiative to preserve these records and record where the original records can be found. 

This is not a digitization project but rather a portal through which to find what records are available for a particular parish, gain permission to research the records on-site, or through which to order extracts, certified copies, or digital images of the documents.  Additionally, each one of the registers will be indexed by name and you can perform a search of the database for your ancestor's records.

The website also provides a means of searching for parishes and civil jurisdictions (pre-1901) by the name of a particular town which may help you narrow down what parishes may need to be searched.

Still in the beginning stages, there is much work to do.  Currently, five regions have records within their database:
  • Liguria (currently only the province of Genova)
  • Sicilia (currently only the province of Enna)
  • Toscana (currently the provinces of Arezzo, Firenze, Grosseto, Livorno, Pisa, and Siena)
  • Sardegna (currently only the province of Cagliari)
  • Veneto (currently only the province of Vicenza)
Happy searching!!!

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