Chronological Finding Aids for the Civil Registration of Messina, Italy

Organization of Records
Before the year 1864, the City of Messina (Citta di Messina) was divided into six civil wards or quarters (Sezioni). Vital records were kept separately for each Sezione, accordingly. In 1864, under the newly-united Kingdom of Italy, the local government was re-organized and the new Community of Messina (Comune di Messina) was erected within greatly expanded boundaries to incorporate the old Citta di Messina and many of the surrounding villages, which were thenceforward known as the Villaggi di Messina. The new Comune di Messina was divided into a six boroughs (Mandamenti), of which two covered the territory of the former Citta—the Mandamento Arcivescovado and the Mandamento Priorato. The former Sezioni were abolished. Accordingly, the vital records for the city proper within the 1866-1910 time period encompassed by this collection may be found within those two Mandamenti.

Beginning in 1875, each Mandamento in the Comune di Messina divided its books of vital records into two parts (“Parte I” and “Parte II”). The records kept with Parte I can be regarded as records of ‘regular order’. These cover events reported within each Mandamento in close proximity to the time of the event. The records kept with Parte II are cases outside of the normal order of reporting, such as late registrations of events, official corrections to earlier records, birth records for foundling children (whose births could not be directly attested), etc. Accordingly, the Parte II sections all tend to be significantly shorter than the Parte I sections for all forms of vital records.

For the years 1909 and 1910, the records for Messina proper were kept in a single unified Mandamento divided into Parte I and Parte II. For these years, Parte II was further divided into Serie A and Serie B. The Serie A records contain reports of children born to Messina residents outside of the boundaries of the Comune, as many had fled the city as refugees in the wake of the December 1908 earthquake and tsunami (see below). Serie B contains the rest of the records that would otherwise have fallen into the usual Parte II category.

Condition of Records
In the early morning hours of December 28, 1908, Messina experienced a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami. This catastrophic event destroyed most of the city and killed up to half of the inhabitants. Many of the Comune’s vital records were damaged or totally destroyed in the event. As a result, it is not uncommon for the original records for certain years or Mandamenti to be partially or totally missing from this collection.

On 21 July 1911, a special law was passed to allow the civil government to reconstitute its lost vital records to the extent possible. These records (Atti ricostituiti) contain substantially less information than the originals—usually little more than the name of the subject, date of event, and parents’ names—but they did serve to officially certify the events described. Where available, the atti ricostituti are included in this collection.

Decennial Table indexes:

Beginning in 1876, so-called Decennial Tables were prepared for vital records in all Comuni across Italy. The Decennial Tables are alphabetical indexes of all vital records for the Comune within the previous ten years. Many of the Decennial Tables for the Comune di Messina were filmed and digitized as part of this collection. These appear under the Villaggi di Messina section of the collection, although these Tables do include records for the two Mandamenti of Messina proper as well. The Decennial Table indexes for births over the following years are included in this collection: The Decennial Table indexes for deaths over the following years are also included in this collection:
 * 1866-1875
 * 1876-1885
 * 1886-1895 (partial)
 * 1866-1875
 * 1876-1885
 * 1896-1905
 * 1906-1915

Order of Records and Finding Aids
To serve as a finding aid for this collection, the following tables provide a chronological index to the records for each Mandamento and Parte in its proper order. Each table / finding aid includes the following information in the following columns:
 * 1) Record year.
 * 2) Mandamento and Parte.  Where the name of the Mandemento is followed by “(r)”, this indicates that these are reconstituted records (atti ricostituti).  Record books for each Mandamento were not divided into sub-parts for the reconstituted records.
 * 3) Contents of each individual volume or section of records.
 * 4) Name of image batch where indicated section of records can be found.
 * 5) Starting digital image page for indicated section of records.
 * 6) Ending digital image page for indicated section of records.
 * 7) Digital image page range for the original Annual Index for the indicated Mandamento / Parte, where this survives.
 * 8) Whether a section has been indexed online through the FamilySearch searchable database of this collection.
 * 9) Any further notes about the indicated section of records.