State Archives of Palermo
IT-PA0534
Civil registry
The State Archives of Palermo holds the Civil Registry of the Restoration – Palermo and municipalities of the province of Palermo, 1820-1865.
The collection includes, for each municipality in the province of Palermo, registers of births, marriages, and deaths, supplemented by folders of supporting documents submitted by the registered individuals. For registers relating to the city of Palermo, the State Archives preserves ten-year indexes of births, deaths, and marriages from 1820 to 1865, which are not preserved for other municipalities in the province. For the city of Palermo only, the Archives also hold ten-year indexes of births, deaths, and marriages for the years 1865-1905, a period for which the corresponding registers are not held.
With the support of the Archival Superintendency of Sicily-State Archives of Palermo, FamilySearch has initiated a digitization campaign of civil registry records held at the municipalities of the province of Palermo. The digital reproductions produced are published under the headings “Civil Registry of the Restoration (municipal registers)” and “Italian Civil Registry (municipal registers)”.
To obtain reproductions of the “Italian Civil Registry (municipal registers)”, it is necessary to contact directly the municipality where the record was registered.
Conscription lists
The Archives hold the following collections:
Conscription Records of the Council of District Conscription Offices of the Province of Palermo, later Provincial Conscription Office, 1891-1924.
The collection includes registers produced by the Council of District Conscription Offices of the Province of Palermo and later by the single Provincial Conscription Office, concerning the city of Palermo and neighboring municipalities, divided into 3 distinct series: Conscription Lists (206 registers), Summary Registers of Council Decisions (4 registers), Registers of Palermo Roll Leaders (14 registers);
Conscription Records of the Conscription Council of Palermo, 1841-1889.
The collection includes registers produced by the Conscription Council of Palermo, concerning the city of Palermo and neighboring municipalities, divided into 3 distinct series: Draft Lists (35 registers), Conscription Lists (13 registers), Summary Registers of Council Decisions (12 registers). The documentation should concern conscripts from the period 1841-1890, but a note in the finding aid for the collection indicates the loss of all registers relating to the class of 1890;
Naval Conscription Lists of Trapani, Conscription classes 1927-1985 (61 registers)
The series includes conscription lists of soldiers produced by the Italian Navy – Maritime District of Trapani and, from 1961, by the Harbor Master’s Office of Trapani, concerning the city of Trapani and municipalities of the province. Earlier registers (classes 1900-1926) are held at the State Archives of Trapani.
Naval Conscription Lists of Palermo, Conscription classes 1959-1985.
The series includes conscription lists of soldiers produced by the Italian Navy – Maritime District of Palermo and, from 1961, by the Harbor Master’s Office of Palermo, concerning the city of Palermo and municipalities of the province.
Service records and rolls
The Archives hold the following collections:
Service Record Files of the Military District of Palermo, Conscription classes 1882-1920 (Enlisted soldiers’ files); Conscription classes 1870-1914 (Non-commissioned officers’ files).
The series includes folders containing service record files produced by the Military District of Palermo – Registry Office – Non-commissioned Officers and Enlisted Section, divided into two subseries, relating respectively to non-commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers;
Service Rolls of Enlisted Soldiers of the Military District of Palermo, Conscription classes 1887-1900.
The series includes Service Rolls of enlisted soldiers produced by the Military District of Palermo, concerning the city of Palermo and municipalities of the province, accompanied, for each year, by indexes listing the names of enlisted military personnel, service number, and annual register number in which they are recorded;
Service Rolls of Enlisted Soldiers of the Military District of Trapani, Conscription classes 1873-1900.
The series includes Service Rolls of enlisted soldiers produced by the Military District of Trapani, concerning the city of Trapani and municipalities of the province, accompanied, for each year, by indexes listing the names of enlisted military personnel, service number, and annual register number in which they are recorded.
Other sources in the Archives
Riveli of souls and property, 1548-1800 (Tribunale del Real Patrimonio); 1651-1756 (Deputazione del Regno).
The riveli of souls and property are the result of censuses of the patrimonial assets of each family unit conducted in Sicily from the first half of the 16th century for the purpose of distributing among the various cities of the island the tax burden represented by “donations” to be paid to the royal treasury. The censuses were based on declarations by the taxpayers themselves, called upon to “reveal” the number of family members and property owned. By royal privilege, residents of the Università (= cities) of Palermo, Messina, and Catania were exempt from submitting the rivelo. The rivelo can also be considered a form of population census, albeit incomplete, because it allowed not only the assessment of economic activities and patrimonial assets of each “fuoco” (= family group), but also a count of “souls”. They can therefore be partially used for researching one’s ancestors from more remote times, substituting—in genealogical reconstruction—parish registers, albeit with some limitations. The censuses were conducted at irregular intervals in the following years: 1505, 1548, 1569-1570, 1583, 1593, 1606, 1616, 1623-1624, 1636, 1651, 1681, 1714, 1747-1756, 1806, 1831. Series of riveli are found in two distinct collections, that of the Tribunale del Real Patrimonio, the supreme fiscal control body of the kingdom, and that of the Deputazione del Regno, a representative body active between sessions of the Parliament of Sicily, to which they were transmitted following audits conducted by the T.R.P. Data relating to fuochi are almost always very close to reality, while for those relating to patrimonial property (oxen, cows, horses, real and personal property), there were undoubtedly deceptions and concealments (possible, for example, the transfer of properties to some relative belonging to the clergy, therefore exempt from taxation).
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