Mascali

Maria Nicotra is the woman at generation four — Salvatore Mazza 's wife, buried at Nudgee, and the mother of the man who brought the name to Queensland. The family tree says she was born at Piedimonte Etneo. This archive read fourteen consecutive Piedimonte birth indexes, 1870 to 1883, looking for her, and the Nicotra are in them the whole time and never produce her.

The explanation was six words in an act nobody had opened. Her parents' marriage — Piedimonte, Matrimoni 1872 atto 20 — puts Giovanni Nicotra «domiciliato e residente a MASCALI» and Venera Cassaniti «qui domiciliata». A wife went to her husband's comune. The children were registered here.

Having found her, the obvious question was whether her father's household was here too — because if it was, his own birth should be. Every surviving birth Tavola from 1839 to 1848 was read at the N section, every entry, each one checked into the next letter before anything was written down. 1844 does not exist in this series at all, and 1842 is torn, its M-to-P run on the lost side.

The answer is that Rosario Nicotra's household was not at Mascali in the 1840s. The only Nicotra here in the whole decade is Alfio Nicotra and Carmela Sudieri, who appear in 1840, 1842 and 1847. Giovanni's own certificate says he was born at Giarre, and the search moved there.

Mascali's marriage Tavole were swept next, because the marriage index names both spouses, all four parents and the comune each came from — one row would have carried a whole generation. Eight years, 1835 to 1847. No Nicotra in any of them.

What the sweep turned up instead is a caution. The 1847 clerk wrote his sections in the order C, then N, then M. 1841 and 1835 put V before S. These are not slips in one volume; they are how this office worked.

So at Mascali, «the alphabet runs M straight into P» proves nothing. The N may be sitting three headings earlier. The only safe reading of a Mascali index is the whole table, first heading to «Fine» — which is how all eight years below were read, and which is why they can be trusted.

The riveli di beni e di anime are household returns made to the Sicilian parliament — who lived in the house, and what they owned. The 1616 volume runs to 546 images, and this archive expected to have to read all of them.

It does not. The book opens with an alphabetical name index, and the letter tabs are cut into the fore-edge of the pages — B, C, D, E, F, G, I, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, still there four hundred years on. Every line gives a name and a folio.

And then the catch, which decides how this gets searched. The index is ordered by forename, not by surname. Its A pages run Antonino lo Xuto, Antonio Barbagallo, Adamo Mangano, Aloisia lo Castro, Agata Grasso, Alfio Musumeci. So the N tab leads to the Natales and the Nicolòs, not to the Nicotra, and looking for a surname means reading the index through. That is about twenty images instead of five hundred and forty-six, which is the difference between an errand and a wall.

The surnames on a single opening are already the ones the 1840s registers are full of — Barbagallo, Musumeci, Finocchiaro, Grasso, Gagliano, Pinnisi, Strano, Arcidiacono. That says the population of this town is continuous across two hundred years. It does not draw a line of descent and nothing here ever will: there is no bridge between 1616 and 1875. What the riveli can answer is whether a surname was in Mascali before the registers begin, which is a smaller question honestly asked. Work list, row 182 →

Rosario Nicotra and Venera Murabito were both alive and unmarked by «fu» in October 1872, in an act that writes fu for a witness two lines above. So they died after it — and an Italian death act names the deceased's parents, which would reach a generation this archive has never touched.

72 of Mascali's 74 death years are read, and they hold seven Nicotra. Not one is Rosario. And no Murabito appears in any M section that could be read — which matters, because an Italian index lists a married woman under her maiden surname, so Venera would be there and not under N.

Only three of the nine years print a paternità column — the father's name beside the death, which is the whole reason the series was opened. The other six give a surname, a forename and a register number, so every hit costs an act on top of the sweep.

Two were worth testing and both were tested. A Nicotra Giuseppe died in 1879, and this town had a Giuseppe born to Alfio and Carmela Sudieri on 19 May 1842. The act kills it: atto 21 of 1879 is a child «di anno uno» — one year old — son of Venero Nicotra, bracciale, and Venera Sorbello.

And that is the better find. Venero Nicotra is a day-labourer at Mascali — Rosario's own condition, stated in the 1872 act — and the first labouring Nicotra household found in this town. The Alfio of 1840–47 is a different household; Giarre's Dottor Don is gentry. Nothing attaches Venero to Rosario, and nothing should until an act does.

The other candidate, a Nicotra Maria of 1876, cannot be read at all: her act lies under the archive's own black cover sheet, and there is no duplicate of that year at Catania. A wall, not an absence.

• The other six children of Giovanni Nicotra and Venera Cassaniti. The family's export names seven — Maria, Rosa, Venera, Nina, Angela, Rosario and Antonina — and two are placed: Venera, 12 December 1873, and Maria. 1876 and 1877 hold Nicotra entries whose indexes carry no paternità column, so they are read and unresolved, which is not the same as absent.
• The deaths. Not opened here at all. Rosario Nicotra and Venera Murabito were both alive in October 1872 and no death has been sought for either, in any of the four towns. The marriages, by contrast, are now swept for 1835–1841 and 1847.
• The riveli of 1616. Forty-six volumes at Palermo that this archive knows how to read — it has used the Piedimonte ones — and has not touched.

The Nicotra line → · What has been read → · Giarre → · Riposto →