Religious Records cover a wide variety of documents. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers several courses covering this topic. (See this blog post about our Religious Records courses.) It is important to become familiar with the religious records relevant to the region and specific time period where you are researching. Records for the same denomination could be different depending on location and the local laws and regulations, even within the same country.

As we continue to look at the Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2 course, we find that Marriage in the Roman Catholic Church is covered in Module 2. Here is a portion of what will be discussed.

A 1564 decree made marriage in the Roman Catholic Church a sacrament. This was reinforced by Papal proclamation in 1595. The requirements for marriage, as dictated by the Council of Trent, were:

• Marriage was a sacrament and Church business
• Couples had to have parental consent, appear with parents/guardians
• Couples could not be forced into marriage, must have free choice
• Marriage must be performed in front of two witness

Additionally, within parish marriage records, you will sometimes find registers for the Stato Libero (statement of free status) or Sponsati Contratti (marriage engagements/contracts). These records were for marriage engagements/contracts to be performed elsewhere, and for stating that the bride or groom was free to marry. The following is an example of this type of document.

Statement of Free Status – Francesco d’Averzo & nine-year-old Michela Pizzolato, Catania, Italy

Note: Italy has laws concerning privacy restrictions like any other country. Italian privacy law extends for 70 years after the creation of a birth record, and 50 years from the date of the event on a death or marriage record. A priest will usually follow the privacy laws when determining whether you can access the records.

You can explore more information about these records in the Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2 course, where we examine in detail the various forms of Italian marriages records that were created, and what genealogical information you may find in them.

—————————————————-
Visit our website for a complete list of online courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Check our Course Calendar here.
Follow us on Social Media: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.
*Note: Please be aware our social media accounts are monitored regularly, but NOT 24/7. If you have any questions, please contact the office directly.

Contact information:
1 (800) 580-0165
www.GenealogicalStudies.com
blog.GenealogicalStudies.com
admin@GenealogicalStudies.com

LEADERS IN ONLINE GENEALOGY EDUCATION

Every country-specific certificate program at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies includes courses for Religious Records.

Continuing to research our ancestors and their family members through religious records, we will often discover unique types of records created within the church records for that region or country. Becoming familiar with these records will make it easier to understand the information we discover within them.

The course Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2, begins with the State of the Souls Records and what they cover in Parish records. Let’s explore these Italian church records.

State of the Souls Records in Genealogy

State of the Souls records can be tremendously helpful in extending a family’s ancestry in those areas of Italy that did not keep civil registration between the years 1816-1865, and in the centuries prior to civil registration. What information they recorded varied depending on the time period, education level or age of the priest, and the location in which it was recorded.

The records may be written in the Latin, Italian, and French languages, or in combination with regional dialects. However, they were predominantly written in Italian and Latin. Some records contained two or more languages/dialects within the same register or even on the same record. One such set of parish records had French, Latin, and Italian all mixed together in nearly every record. This made for a confusing translation process.

The status animarum were created during annual pastoral visits to each household. In large cities or when the priest was elderly, one entry may have been made that he then updated each Easter over a series of years. Occupations, titles, and tax notations can provide evidence of an ancestor’s social status within the community.

The status animarum were progressive records, meaning that they were not created at one time, but rather, over a series of years. Additionally, multiple priests could have made entries to a single status animarum record. This can create multiple chances for transcription error. Age, attention to detail, the size of the parish, and a variety of other factors can play a part in the accuracy of the information in these records. Despite this, these documents are thought to hold strong evidence on an Italian family.

We will show examples of these valuable records in a future blog post. See the blog post here.

Are you researching your Italian Catholic ancestors? Learn more about researching your Italian ancestors in the course Italian: Catholic Church Records-Part 2 through their records. Check the Course Calendar for the next time this course will be offered.

—————————————————-
Visit our website for a complete list of online courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Check our Course Calendar here.
Follow us on Social Media: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.
*Note: Please be aware our social media accounts are monitored regularly, but NOT 24/7. If you have any questions, please contact the office directly.

Contact information:
1 (800) 580-0165
Email: admin@GenealogicalStudies.com
Website: www.GenealogicalStudies.com
Blog: blog.GenealogicalStudies.com

LEADERS IN ONLINE GENEALOGY EDUCATION