When will we have online access to records from the Diocese of Cefalu in Sicily, Italy please?

+7 votes
979 views
Prior to 1820, it is almost impossible to get records for the Diocese of Cefalu. We are depending on death records of offspring to figure out who lived in Sicily before 1820. Does anyone know if or when church records will be available online for free? I have seen records for the Diocese of Palermo, but not for Cefalu, which is just east of Palermo.

Thanks!

Sharon Centanne, researcher of Alia, Sicilia.
WikiTree profile: Troy-204
in The Tree House by Living Troy G2G6 Pilot (175k points)

3 Answers

+4 votes
 
Best answer
Sharon, you may also want to look at the Allegati (notaries' supplemental records) in the FamilySearch civil records list.   For marriages, these typically had extracts of the birth records of both spouses, and the death records of any previous spouses, and if parents or sometimes grandparents were deceased, their death records as well.   Prior to 1820 these were extracts from the church records.   Unfortunately the Allegati aren't very well organized; sometimes sequentially, sometimes not, sometimes even out of order, sometimes mis-labelled in the FS collection, and sometimes missing.  But I have been able to trace many Cefalu family lines back to early/mid 1700s that way.   Not as good as the "real thing", but it's something!
by
selected by Living Troy
Thanks, Dennis! Boun' Anno Nuovo!
+6 votes
Europe, as a whole, has been much slower to go online with its records than younger countries such as the US and Australia. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, until recently, genealogy was the realm of the titled and landed. The average person's genealogy meant nothing, so was not recorded.

Secondly, countries like Italy were late forming. Centralised record keeping only started in the late 1800s and didn't become efficiently taken in some areas until close to 1900. Compare this to the centralised systems the British had from the 1500s (church records) and the governmental records from 1835.

Thirdly, genealogical societies in countries like Italy have been slow to digitalise records (believe me, I have relatives in Italy and they are nowhere near as computer savvy as we are in the west). There has also been a suspicion of digitalising RC records because of the influence of the Mormons.

So, lots of reasons, but slowly it is happening. You might like to contact familysearch because they appear to have them, but have not put them up yet.https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/484099?availability=Family%20History%20Library
by Susan Scarcella G2G6 Mach 7 (79.7k points)
Thanks, Susan! I was thinking it might be the reluctance of the churches themselves to give away the records for free. We had that problem with Ireland. Finally the Irish government tourism agencies managed to get the Heritage Centres digitizing. But the churches that don't want the Mormons  to have their records are keeping them back, hoping to make money off them themselves. Will it take an Italian tourism agency or the Italian government to buy these records off the churches? I use Familysearch all the time, which is a Mormon site, but have never contacted them directly online.

Sharon
It's not that the churches want money for themselves. The Mormons believe they can baptise their dead ancestors, and, as you can imagine, many churches have been reluctant to hand over records to them. What it needs is for efficient genealogical societies in co operation with the governments, to digitalise the records and put them online. But alas, efficiency is not always a hallmark of certain societies. LOLOL
+6 votes

Roman Catholic Diocese of Cefalù - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Cefal...

Wikipedia

The Diocese of Cefalù (Latin: Dioecesis Cephaludensis) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Sicily, southern Italy. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of ...

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo - Wikipedia, the free ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Roman_Catholic_Archdiocese_of_...

​Wikipedia

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palermo (Latin: Archidioecesis Panormitana) ... Country, Italy ... Diocese of Cefalù · Diocese of Mazara del Vallo ·Archdiocese of Monreale · Diocese of Trapani .... Roman Catholic dioceses in Sicily · Roman Catholic archbishops of Palermo · Dioceses established in the 1st ...

Cefalù (Diocese) [Catholic-Hierarchy]

www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dcefa.html

Catholic‑Hierarchy.org

Catholic Diocese of Cefalù. ... Type of Jurisdiction: Diocese; Erected: 1131; Metropolitan: Archdiocese of Palermo; Rite: Latin (or Roman); Country: Italy; Square ...

Diocese of Cefalu | Catholic Answers

www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/diocese-of-cefalu

Catholic Answers

Cefalu, (CEPHALOEDIUM), Diocese of (CEPHALUDENSIS).—The city of the same name in the province of Palermo, in Sicily (Italy), is situated nearly in the ...

Maps of Catholic dioceses in Sicily - Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/.../Maps_of_Cathol...

​Wikimedia Commons

Oct 5, 2007 - Maps of Catholic dioceses in Sicily ... 1 Ecclesiastical Region Sicily; 2 Ecclesiastical Province Agrigento; 3 Ecclesiastical ... Diocese of Cefalù.

The Catholic Directory - Catholic Churches in Cefalu, Italy

www.thecatholicdirectory.com/directory.cfm?fuseaction...it...Cefalu

Listings 1 - 9 of 9 - Below is a list of all Catholic Churches in CefaluItaly. Find look up and search The Catholic Directory for Catholic Church Mass Times Diocese ...

by Frank Gill G2G Astronaut (2.6m points)
Thank you! I hope these records will be online soon. Writing to the churches and paying them by the record is not efficient genealogy <g>.

Related questions

+5 votes
2 answers
+5 votes
2 answers
+9 votes
2 answers
354 views asked Jul 15, 2022 in The Tree House by Kaylee Robinson G2G6 Mach 2 (27.7k points)

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...