Palermo Document Indexes and H Tornabene

[parkergambino]

Esteemed colleagues,

A recent post (https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/topic/39993) about the availability of historical vital document indexes for specific localities got me thinking about a topic I'd been meaning to re-visit: the Hugh Tornabene indexes for Palermo.

The essential background: I do not have faith in the existence of a clear or clearly sensible system of administrative entities associated with Palermo, with its periodical re-arrangements and turf battles throughout historical time. The Province ("Provincia") of Palermo, re-christened in 2015 as the "Metropolitan City of Palermo", was composed of four districts ("distretti"), of which Palermo was one. Within the Palermo Distretto, there is a city (Citta) of Palermo, subdivided into a word salad of quarters ("quartieri"), sections ("sezioni"), and neighborhoods ("borgate").

In the early 1900's, a series of massive collections of comprehensive vital statistic indexes (birth, marriage, death) were privately printed; these included Palermo city and its various quarters, sections, and neighborhoods. As has been pointed out most recently by our veteran Farassino, these indexes, covering the years 1820-1895, are available on Antenati:


Births
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/search- ... cennali%22

Marriages
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/search- ... cennali%22

Deaths
https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/search- ... cennali%22

Hugh Tornabene's multi-step enhancement involved converting the scans of the indexes into MS-Excel files. The marriage indexes were the first to be completed, and were made available, free to all, on one of his personal websites. Inferior penultimate/interim versions are still available at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~tornabene/index8.htm, but the MS-Excel files can no longer be accessed there. He also made available the interim versions of the birth indexes, likewise available on his own "Palermo Births Hub" web site; I am uncertain of the status of his progress with the death indexes.

Before his passing in 2016 Tornabene handed off his opus to one of the large web-based genealogical organizations (I believe it was Ancestry), so at the moment we cannot take advantage of it, and when it does emerge it may be behind a paywall. Sic transit gloria mundi. While it was in the public domain I archived various portions; if you think these would be helpful for your research, send me a PM. If anyone reading this has captured and retained the raw MS-Excel birth files, please PM me!

==========================

Notwithstanding the foregoing, since the printed volumes of Palermo indexes end at 1895, there are some subsequent years for which some of the un-indexed Palermo documents are available on FamilySearch. If I restrict myself to the borgata relevant to my own ancestry, Tommaso Natale/Sferracavallo I could plug along and generate an index in MS-Excel format. If that goes well, perhaps I might expand to nearby borgate of Mondello and Resuttana later on. I have no interest in re-inventing the wheel, though, so if anyone is on a similar track, or wants to collaborate, please let me know!

Parker

[essaystructure]

After reading your post I am interested again and what should I do now?

[parkergambino]

Esteemed colleagues,

I have located and downloaded Tornabene's Nati Excel files for the entirety of the 1896-1905 interval. So, regarding what is posted above:

1. There is no need to provide these no-longer-missing resources.

2. If your research involves access to Palermo births in this interval, you can send me a PM and we can talk.

3. I will be continuing work on creating an indexed Excel spreadsheet/database for the subset of Palermo births that occurred in the Tommaso Natale & Sferracavallo borgate. It will be some time before it is in shape to be made available, but in the interim I will be happy to assist with any research inquiries.

Parker