Picture Wednesday - Palermo, Palermo Province, Italy

Annotations in the Margin of Civil Death Records - Birth Record of Carmela Catanese

Annotations of marriage and death are often found in the margin of a civil birth record.  Sometimes, like in the record above, the notation was not made on the copy found in the Archivio di Stato [Provincial Archives]  but was made on the copy that is kept in the Comune [Town].

The documents available through FamilySearch were often microfilmed or digitized at the provincial archives, although some are becoming available that were found in the Comune or Tribunale [District Court].

The death record of Carmela Catanese, found on a FamilySearch microfilm and microfilmed at the provincial archives, contained no annotations in the margin.  However, the copy above that was found in the records of the Comune of Isnello did contain annotations for both her marriage [top left] and her death in the United States [bottom right].

I find it interesting that her U.S. death was recorded on this document. The marriage noted here was her second marriage which ended in divorce. She then went back to the U.S. [she'd immigrated before] and married a third time.  She lived nearly twenty years after she returned to America.  She must have maintained close ties with someone in Italy who cared enough to report her death.