Hello!

Here is finally the newsletter you’re all waiting for… including the latest news on our work of digitalization in Ischia and Procida!

Digitalization in Procida
 

Regarding the island of Procida, the registers (baptisms, marriages and deaths) stored at the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo have ALL been digitalized. This complex and huge task realized in only one year represents 65 registers and nearly 500 years of the life of our ancestors. This gold mine is now safe for the eternity.

To symbolize the completion of this work and the first anniversary of the foundation of our Association, I have had the pleasure of handing to Monsignore Luigi Fasanaro the first CD-ROM of the registers along with a donation of 100 € on behalf of the Association and all its members. This donation is aimed at the preservation of the Abbey San Michele Arcangelo, where lived and died many of our parents over the centuries.

Digitalization in Ischia

Regarding the island of Ischia, the first two towns concerned by the digitalization are Forio and Barano. I have been busy there during my last trip digitalizing the first registers.

In Forio, for the parish of San Vito Martire, I have digitalized so far the 4 registers of marriages and 2 registers of baptisms. More registers are also located in the other parish of San Sebastiano and I will attempt to contact and meet its priest during my next trip.

In Barano, for the parish of San Sebastiano Martire, I have digitalized 4 registers of baptisms and 2 registers of marriages. I have also obtained the authorization of digitalizing the parish of Testaccio, which is administered by the same priest.

Regarding the state of these registers, they are not all in very good shape: bindings destroyed, missing pages, and even missing registers. It has not yet been possible to establish a clear inventory. Also, reading the certificates will be more difficult for Ischia than it was Procida due to the bad writing and the usage of Latin.

Today, another 15 registers remain to be digitalized in each parish. This work will continue of course when I return to Ischia, in spring or at Easters 2005.

Regarding the town of Ischia, I am still in the progress of meeting the priest of this town to confirm the project, and I still hope to start digitalizing next time. The overall objective is to digitalize the archives of the whole island of Ischia.

Computerization of the indexes

Like with every newsletter, you will discover another set of new or updated indexes available on the Web site, which you may now download.

With the arrival of the registers of Forio and Barano, there is also a lot of new work. Like for Procida before, I am now looking for new voluntary members wishing to computerize the registers of Ischia. This announcement is particularly aimed at those of you with origins in Ischia. This work will allow you to get familiar with the names and the origins of your ancestors.

The Association in the Italian Press this month

A few months ago, you were able to read on the Web site the stories of Annie-Claire SCHERLE and René BARONE, both cousins of the family « Albano di Spaccone » from Procida. The Italian version of their stories has now been published in « ProcidaOggi » in November! You may view or download this article from our Web site.

Recently, I have also been interviewed by an Italian Agency « NewsItaliaPress ». I was able to tell the story of our association, describe our objectives and our projects for Procida and Ischia. An article has been released on 11 November on their News Web Portal. You may view this article at the following address:

http://www.newsitaliapress.it/interna.asp?ln=0&sez=266&info=102976 

Also, don’t forget that you may also publish your stories and your genealogy on our Web site. All you need to do is to write them into a Word document and mail it to me along with a couple of photos.

Some statistics for 2004…

After already one year, the number of members on 15 October 2004 has reached 85 members of which 75 are from Procida, 29 from Ischia, and 24 from both. We also count in 2004 12 benefactor members and 60 regular members. The graphs below illustrate these figures:

100% of the registers of Procida have been digitalized, 50% of the indexes have been computerized and this work has been and still is carried out by 13 voluntary members! Thanks to this work, 852 certificates have been sent this year and 172 have been translated in French or in English!

These figures clearly show the success of the Association since its foundation in October 2003. Today we are not lacking of projects or work for 2004/2005. However, this success has also for consequence a significant increase of your emails and requests for certificates… I apologize in advance for the delay in responding to you.

Thank you.
 

Pascal SCOTTO DI VETTIMO
President of the Association