Napoleone Bonaparte was the first to introduce Civil Vital records in Italy. It is important to note that Napoleonic civil records are common especially in the center and south of Italy, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, approximately from 1809 to 1865 (every area has its own variation, for instance in Sicily they only started in 1822) and are kept in the State Archive of the main province. Vital records are the following:
Birth Records:
Birth documents held in the State Archives of the main Province are the original birth acts. Usually it is the father who declared the birth of a child in front of the mayor who verified that the child was sane and two witnesses, not related with the family, to state that the child has been born. There is usually a baptism statement in the right margin, which does not constitute a baptism act, but it was edited directly by the priest, providing the name of the parish where and when the baptism took place.
Here is the information that you will find:
· the child is formally presented to the mayor for identification
(date and time of the presentation)
· Comune and Province
· Declaration by the father (full name, age, profession and domicile)
of his child's date of birth and his wife's full name
· Name of the child
· Witnesses (full names, age, profession, domicile)
· Baptismal statement (information added on the basis of an a note
from the parish priest, which is not a baptismal act), which is a
specification of when and where the baptism took place
Marriage Records
The State Archive holds two separate volumes for marriage records:
1. The marriage act (Atto di matrimonio)
2. The notifications or banns (pubblicazioni), which include all the
documents that the bride and the groom had to present. The two
could only get married if they presented their birth acts and before
1870 they also had to obtain the consent of both fathers.
The first marriage document examined is the promise of marriage (atto di solenne promessa di celebrare il matrimonio), which provides rich information on both the couple and their parents. The couple had also to present at least two witnesses each. Two copies of the promise of marriage were sent out to the priest who in turn would return one copy with a side notation stating that the actual marriage had taken place in the parish church.
Usually the banns or pubblicazioni were out for at least two weeks before the celebration of the wedding. They also provide interesting genealogical information, full name of the couple, age, domicile, profession, and parent's names. Finally, the marriage act, which repeats more or less the same information of the preceding acts, does contain some additional personal data, such as the civil status of the couple.
Death Records
Napoleonic Death records held in the State Archives of the main Province are the original death acts. Through these records we are able to identify one or two generations of those ancestors who were born before 1809 (date of the beginning of the Napoleonic records).
Here is the information that you will find:
· Declaration by the witness/es (full name, age, profession, and
domicile) regarding the death before the mayor
· Date and place the act was written
· Comune and Province
· Full Name of the deceased
· Civil Status
· If married the death act will include the name of the husband or the
wife of the deceased, and also the name of a deceased partner, if the
person was a widow or a widower.
· Place of birth
· Age
· Profession
· The father's name
· Domicile
· Final statement by which the mayor informs that he personally visited
the deceased at home to testify the death (at that time most of the
people died at home, hospitals did not have a good reputation)
Napoleonic civil vital records have a general yearly index at the beginning or at the end of each volume (birth, marriage, death). Also Napoleonic records were made in two copies, one that today is kept in the State Archive and another for the Pretura della Repubblica, which is not available for consultation.
Most of these records have been microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and these reproductions are available to at the church's family history centers (FHC) throughout the United States and Canada.