And what has not

What Has Been Read

A search that found nothing is still a result: it stops the next person repeating it. This page records both what has been done and what is still outstanding.

FindMyPast — a six-day trial, spent

What a paid subscription was actually worth here

The trial expires on 16 September 2026, so it was swept systematically rather than browsed. It is recorded in full, negatives included — the most useful thing a search can do for the next person is stop them repeating it, and two of the negatives below would otherwise cost someone a subscription to discover.

found

Serafina Arena — baptism — Baptised 1898, OUR LADY OF LORETTO, New York County

found

Clementina Arena — baptism — Baptised 1901, OUR LADY OF LORETTO, New York County

retracted

Clementina Arena's 1921 crossing — WITHDRAWN. IT IS SOMEBODY ELSE'S. — US/PASS/NY/ELLIS2/000191616/3 is a different Clementina Arena.

found

Generoso Arena — a crossing in 1903 — Ellis Island, 1903, aged about 9 (b. 1894)

corroborated

Prostamo in the Australian passenger index — Five records: Caterina 1969, Domenico F 1956, Francesca 1957, Francesco 1957, Rocco 1949

negative

Rocco Arena in the 1910 US census — Not there

negative

Italy Births & Baptisms 1806-1900, and Marriages, and Deaths — DOES NOT COVER SCILLA

negative

Italy Marriages 1809-1900 for Rosario Mazza — Four Rosario Mazza marriages, none after 1862

negative

Queensland Marriages 1829-1939 — Ends too early

found

THE LOCK IS OPEN — the New York Roman Catholic parish transcripts, read — The full subscription opens them. FOUR ARENA BAPTISMS at Our Lady of Loretto naming ROCCO ARENA and GENEROSA COSTA, with the Mulberry Street addresses; the Arlotta children; and the marriage register, from which two Arena namesakes were excluded on their parents' names.

method

The signed-out session, resolved — and why a lapsed subscription is not a negative — Access restored 16 September 2026 when the account holder took a full month's subscription and signed in. Everything this row listed as wanted has now been run.

found

Rocco Arlotta — THE 1900 LODGER, IDENTIFIED — Married ANTONIETTA TAVANI, 4 June 1900, Manhattan. Aged 22, born 1878. Father ANTONIO ARLOTTA, mother NICOLINA CARATOZZOLA.

found

Our Lady of Loretto — the Scilla colony in one Manhattan parish — Eighty-four Arena baptisms in the New York Roman Catholic parish index, with the father's given name against each.

retracted

RETRACTED — the godparents are not behind that paywall, because they are not in the record at all — The full transcript has now been read. ITS FIELDS ARE: record set, name, birth year, baptism year, parish, county, state, country, MOTHER'S first and last name, FATHER'S first and last name, birth date, baptism date, location, archdiocese, RESIDENCE, language. THERE IS NO GODPARENT FIELD, and there is no «View original record» button -- these baptisms are TRANSCRIPT ONLY, with no image.

negative

Rocco Arena in the 1910 US census — confirmed absent from a second index — Zero results.

negative

Domenica Prostamo's 1951 voyage — absent from a SECOND index — Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972 holds five Prostamo and she is not among them.

negative

The Australian Mazza sets do not reach this family — Queensland parish burials hold two Mazza, neither ours.

negative

Rosa Arena and Clementina Arena of Vittoria — a different family — Giuseppe Verdi out of Naples, 1921. Rosa 27, b.1894, resident VITTORIA (Ragusa), father GIOVANNI; Clementina entered as her sister.

found

Rocco Arena's four crossings — all four now named, dated and with a ship — 1892 ELYSIA ex Naples, aged 31; 1894 SUEVIA ex Naples, aged 33; 1900 TRAVE ex Genoa, aged 39; 1913 SAN GUGLIELMO ex Messina, aged 52. Indexed birth year 1861 on every one.

found

The 1913 crossing names his wife and a nephew — San Guglielmo out of Messina, 1913. Rocco Arena, 52, US Citizen. DEPARTURE PORT RELATION (WIFE): CORTA GENEROSA. ARRIVAL PORT RELATION (NEPHEW): ANTONIO ARENA.

corroborated

Anna Arena's 1899 crossing — a second index agrees — Archimede ex Napoli, 1899. Anna Arena, age 6, birth year 1893, RESIDENCE SCILLA.

negative

The other Giovanni Arena of 1899 is from Serra San Bruno — «Gmi. Giovanni Antonio Arena», 41, b.1858, ship Bolivia ex Naples, 1899. RESIDENCE: SERRA S. BRUNO. Arrival port relation (BROTHER-IN-LAW): Vincenzo Pisano.

negative

Giuseppe Arena of Scilla — no American crossing indexed — Zero results for Giuseppe Arena with Scilla in the travel and migration records.

found

Rocco Arlotta's children name his parents back — three for three — Our Lady of Loretto: NICOLINA b.1901, ANTONIO b.1903, PAPPINA (Peppina) b.1904, father ROCCO in each.

negative

Rocco Arena has no naturalisation petition in this collection — Zero matching records; the Rocco Arena entries are born 1896 and petition in 1942-44.

negative

Antonio Arena, born New York 1896, is not in the New York draft cards — The New York WWI registrations hold an Antonio Arena born 1876 and an «Antonio Rena» Arena born 1886. Neither is 1896.

found

ANTONIO ARENA'S BAPTISM — and the Mulberry Street address, confirmed — Born 3 OCTOBER 1896, baptised 15 NOVEMBER 1896 at OUR LADY OF LORETTO, Manhattan. Father ROCCO ARENA, mother GENEROSA COSTA. RESIDENCE: 141 MULBERRY STREET.

found

THE WHOLE NEW YORK HOUSEHOLD — four children, two addresses, one infant death — Antonio b. 3 Oct 1896 (141 Mulberry); Serafina b. 15 Aug 1898 (141 Mulberry); Clementina b. 21 Dec 1900 (198 Mulberry); Antonio b. 13 Oct 1902 (Most Precious Blood). All «father Rocco Arena, mother Generosa Costa».

negative

Joannem Arena, married at Our Lady of Loretto in 1899, is a Palermo family and not ours — Groom's father THOMAE ARENA, mother ANGELICAE COGLITORE, residence PALERMO; bride IGNATIAM ARNATO of POLIZZI GENEROSA, daughter of Vincentii Arnato and Losephae Fiorito. Married 17 December 1899.

found

SEBASTIANO MAZZA ON THE 1959 QUEENSLAND ELECTORAL ROLL — Progress Road, Wacol — Sebastiano Mazza, male, BUILDER'S LABOURER, Progress Road, WACOL, sub-district INALA, district McPherson, Queensland, 1959 roll, number 3779. The only Sebastiano Mazza in the entire collection.

found

ROSARIO AND ANGELA MAZZA AT 225 LEICHHARDT STREET — one address, and a correction to how it was read — ROSARIO MAZZA, SHOPKEEPER, number 1845; ANGELA MAZZA, HOME DUTIES, number 1844. Both at 225 Leichhardt Street, City, Brisbane, 1959 roll.

found

ROSARIO SALVATORE MAZZA, 1949 — 191 Given Terrace, Paddington, shop assistant — Rosario Salvatore Mazza, male, SHOP ASSISTANT, 191 Given Terrace, PADDINGTON, Brisbane, Queensland, 1949 roll, number 4788.

found

The other Queensland Mazza of 1959 — Tully and Yelarbon, two trades, one of them a lead — ANDREA MAZZA, TIMBER CUTTER, Cardwell, sub-district TULLY, district Herbert, number 1422. ANTONIO MAZZA, TOBACCO GROWER, Wyenio, YELARBON, sub-district Inglewood, district Maranoa, number 857.

negative

DOMENICA PROSTAMO IS NOT ON ANY AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL ROLL FINDMYPAST HOLDS — under either name — «Domenica Mazza» returns ZERO in the collection. «Prostamo» returns ZERO across the whole of Australia, every state and every year.

method

What Findmypast's «Australia Electoral Rolls» actually covers for Queensland — eight years, ending 1959 — QUEENSLAND: commonwealth rolls for 1903, 1906, 1913, 1922, 1934, 1941, 1949 and 1959 only, plus state rolls 1860-1884 and 1895-1915. 45% have images. Other states are thinner still: Western Australia 1939/1943/1949, Tasmania 1916/1934/1943, South Australia 1939/1941/1943, New South Wales 1903/1913/1935.

method

The Findmypast results URL silently corrupts searches when a parameter is wrong — in two different ways — VERIFIED PARAMETERS: datasetname, lastname, firstname, and the sort pair o= and d=. UNRECOGNISED ONES DO ONE OF TWO THINGS. «state=Queensland» and «page=2» render a filter chip and report «0 results found». «street=progress road» is discarded in silence and the unfiltered count comes back unchanged.

found

THE CRUPI OF TULLY — seven of them on one page of the 1959 roll, with trades and addresses — Numbers 504-510 in the Tully sub-district: ANTONIO, cane farmer, Dean Street; FRANCESCO, mechanic, Innisfail Road; GIOVANNA, home duties, Feluga; MARIA, home duties, no address; MARIO, lorry driver, no address; NELLIE, home duties, Dean Street; PIETRO, lorry driver, Birkala via Tully.

found

The Crupi a decade earlier, and the trades that changed — 1949 — ANTONIO CRUPI, BOOTMAKER, Bryant Street, Tully. MARIO CRUPI, BUS DRIVER, Mena Creek, sub-district INNISFAIL. A SECOND ANTONIO CRUPI, FARMER, Silkwood East, Innisfail, on the 1959 roll — a different man from the Tully cane farmer.

negative

POLISTENA and ROCCO ARENA are on no Australian electoral roll Findmypast holds — «Polistena» returns ZERO across the whole of Australia. «Rocco Arena» returns ZERO. The surname Arena returns 172, none of them this family: the Queensland Arena are a Cloncurry family enrolled from 1898 to 1934.

negative

MELLUSO and ANILE — nothing for either in Australia — «Melluso» returns ZERO across all of Australia. «Anile» returns TWO, both in WESTERN AUSTRALIA on the 1949 roll: Concetta Anile and Rosario Anile.

found

TWO SURNAME CLUSTERS IN QUEENSLAND THAT THIS ARCHIVE HAS NOT OPENED — Donato and Nicotra — DONATO: 65 results, with a Queensland block including CANDELORE DONATO (1941, 1949), CANDO DONATO (1939, 1959), DOMENICO DONATO (1959), ANNUNZIATO, CONCETTA and DOMINICO. NICOTRA: 39 results, almost all Queensland — FILIPPO (1934-1959), GREGORIO (1939-1959), GIUSEPPE, CARMELA, LEONARDA and LEONARD (1934-1959).

method

Two things that make a Findmypast sweep cheap — and one bad inference they exposed — javascript_tool WORKS on both the results page and the transcript page, returning every row with its /transcript?id= href in ONE page load, and the full transcript as plain text. The rolls are ordered ALPHABETICALLY BY GIVEN NAME within a surname within a sub-district.

negative

THE UGOLINO VIVALDI CANDIDATE — Findmypast could not test it, and the manifest then killed it — «Domenico Mazza», 1951, arrival 01 MAR 1951, ship UGOLINO VIVALDI, Genoa to Australia, BARCODE 30133197 — the identical NAA barcode this archive already carries. No age, no sex, no birth year, no other field the index did not already give.

method

For twentieth-century Australian arrivals, Findmypast IS the NAA index — not a second source — Every post-1945 row in «Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972» carries an id of the form ANZ/AUSPASS/NAA/xxxxxxxxx, a NAA BARCODE, and a link to recordsearch.naa.gov.au. The pre-1940 rows are different material — ANZ/VCPL and ANZ/MIGR/VICTORIAPASSLIST, the Victorian inward, outward and coastal lists.

found

ROCCO PROSTAMO, 10 August 1949 — a Prostamo crossing this archive has never held — Mr Rocco Prostamo, arrival 10 AUG 1949, ship NAPOLI, Genoa to MELBOURNE, Victoria. NAA barcode 9245827.

method

The year filter on Findmypast is «eventyear», and «year» is one of the parameters that lies — «year=1898» returns ZERO on a search whose unfiltered form plainly contains 1898 rows. «eventyear=1898» returns TWELVE. The sort keys, read out of the page's own column headers, are firstname, lastname, yearofbirth, EVENTYEAR, departureport and destinationport.

found

ROCCO ARENA ENTERS THE AMERICAN CENSUS ONCE, IN 1900, AND NEVER APPEARS AGAIN — 1900: EXACTLY ONE Rocco Arena in the whole United States — born 1861, Italy, New York — and he is ours. 1910: ZERO. 1920: two, born 1883 and 1913. 1930: six, the earliest born 1882. None of the later ones can be him.

negative

The naturalisation is still not found, and the census now says where to look for it — No Rocco Arena in the United States Naturalization Petitions set on Findmypast; that collection begins too late for him. Nothing in the censuses of 1910, 1920 or 1930.

negative

GIOVANNI ARENA BAPTISED NO CHILD IN NEW YORK WITH CONCETTA RUSSO — Father GIOVANNI + mother CONCETTA, surname Arena: ZERO. There are EIGHT Arena baptisms with a father Giovanni — at Mount Carmel, Immaculate Conception, Mary Help of Christians and one at Our Lady of Loretto — and NOT ONE has a mother Concetta. The control ran first: father ROCCO + mother GENEROSA returns EXACTLY the four known children and nothing else.

negative

NO ARENA MARRIAGE AT OUR LADY OF LORETTO CAN BELONG TO THIS FAMILY — by arithmetic, not by guesswork — Seven Arena marriages at Our Lady of Loretto, 1897 to 1913: Rasolino 1897, Joannem 1899, Ignatium 1901, Aloissiam 1905, Joannem 1907, Paulum 1909, Calagerum 1913. The 1899 one was read and is a PALERMO family — father Thomae Arena, mother Angelicae Coglitore, bride of Polizzi Generosa.

negative

There is no New York Roman Catholic BURIALS collection — so the first Antonio's death cannot be tested here — «new york roman catholic parish burials» returns a 500 error: the set does not exist. «Congregational Records» resolves but is empty — zero Arena, and zero RUSSO, one of the commonest Italian surnames in New York. The Catholic Heritage Archive for New York is BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES ONLY.

negative

The Victorian passenger lists hold nothing for this family — and the reason is what they are — «Victoria Coastal Passenger Lists 1852-1924» is DOMESTIC SHIPPING between Australian ports, and most of its rows carry NO GIVEN NAME AT ALL — the sample read is «Mazza, male, b. 1872, married, age 19, Strahan to Melbourne on the Bellinger, 14 December 1891». The identifiable pre-1925 Mazza in the outward lists are recorded as BRITISH. CONTROL: «Michele Mazza, 1925, Messina to Brisbane» is returned on the first try, so the collection does hold this family's one pre-war arrival.

The find: the family's New York parish

Two of Rocco Arena and Generosa Costa's New York children were baptised at Our Lady of Loretto — Sarafina Arena in 1898 and Clementina in 1901. Loretto was the Italian parish of Little Italy, on Elizabeth Street, a few minutes' walk from the Mulberry Street address the 1899 manifest gives for Rocco.

So the archive now knows not just the street but the church. The transcripts are locked behind a tier above the trial — and they would carry the godparents, who in an Italian parish are almost always kin. That is the single most valuable thing still sitting behind a paywall.

The negative worth most

The "Italy Births, Marriages and Deaths 1806–1900" sets do not cover Scilla. The test was clean: zero Polistena across all three, for a surname with six emigrants in the Ellis Island index alone. They are FamilySearch-derived and their Italian coverage runs to Sicily and the north, not Reggio Calabria. Anyone hoping to shortcut the Antenati work through a subscription site should know that before paying.

The same sets were tried for the archive's oldest Sicilian question — Rosario Mazza 's marriage to Leonarda Bonanno, about 1870. No Leonarda Bonanno marriage exists in the set, and no Mariano Mazza birth, though 110 Nicotra marriages show it does reach the Catania area. That question stays where it was.

Method, for whoever comes next. FindMyPast's search runs on a GraphQL endpoint — POST /titan/marshal/graphql, recordSearch(filters, order, pageNumber) under root { search }. Driving that directly turns a twelve-page click-through into one loop, and the RecordMetadataId filter restricts a search to a single record set. The whole sweep above cost a few minutes rather than an afternoon.

Coverage

What the archives hold, against what this one has listed

A negative is a claim that a record is not in a volume. It is worth nothing if the volume was never digitised, and worth less than nothing if the listing of volumes was incomplete and nobody said so. Twice this archive listed a comune once, never re-listed it, and planned searches around a fraction of what exists.

Piedimonte Etneo held 103 of its 457 registers until 20 September, when it was re-listed in full and reconciled group by group against the live index — it now holds 457. Briatico still holds 80 of 555. In both cases whole fondi were missing — the marriage processetti, the allegati, and at Piedimonte nine volumes of Riveli di anime e di terre from 1714 and 1747–1752 that nobody knew were there.

Place	Series	Span	The holding	Listed here	What that means
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	Stato civile napoleonico	1809–1815	466 registers in three fondi	327	reachable — SCILLA'S REGISTERS BEGIN IN 1809, not 1816 -- a fact this archive got wrong for eight days and built a WALL on. Seventeen napoleonic volumes. Filippo Arena and Domenica Costa married in the fifth of them.
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	Stato civile della restaurazione	1816–1865	180 volumes listed	180	reachable — The main run. Births, marriages, deaths and the MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI, twenty-two volumes 1810-1865 and none after.
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	Stato civile italiano	1866–1943	130 volumes listed	130	reachable — Deaths 1911-1943 are also NAME-INDEXED on Antenati, with father, mother and spouse -- one query replaces a volume sweep.
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	Stato civile della restaurazione	1820–1865	223 registers	223	reachable — SICILY HAS NO NAPOLEONIC REGISTERS: the island stayed Bourbon and began only with the restoration, in 1820. Includes MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI 1841-1860, twenty volumes, never opened by this archive.
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	Stato civile italiano	1866–1893	225 registers	225	reachable — AND IT STOPS AT 1893. The Mazza-Nicotra marriage of about 1900 and Venera Cassaneti's death in 1925 are not here and never were.
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	Riveli di anime e di terre (Deputazione del Regno)	1714–1752	9 volumes	9	reachable — HOUSEHOLD TAX CENSUSES, a century before civil registration in Sicily -- which retires this archive's own rule that «before 1820 it is parish records or nothing». The 1747-1748 index is read: eighty households, no Mazza, two MAZZEO.
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	Civil Registration (Tribunale), via FamilySearch	1866–1929	not counted	0	another archive — THE ROUTE PAST 1893. The Tribunale's duplicate for the province of Catania runs thirty-six years further than the Archivio di Stato's filming, and this archive already cites the collection elsewhere. Not yet used for Piedimonte.
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	Stato civile, all fondi	1810–1930	555 registers -- Catanzaro 440, Vibo Valentia 115	81	listing incomplete — THE WORST UNDER-LISTING IN THE ARCHIVE: eighty-one rows held against 555 available. A listing at s_size=500 returned 500 and showed NOTHING BETWEEN 1859 AND 1910 -- which would put Caterina Melluso's 1860 birth out of reach -- but fifty-five registers were not in the sample and that is not yet a finding.
Potenzoni (Briatico), Vibo Valentia	Stato civile	1806	57 registers of its own	0	reachable — A FRAZIONE THAT REGISTERED SEPARATELY. Three honest negatives for Briatico births were collected from the wrong parish before this was found. Before recording a surname as absent from a comune, search its hamlets by name.
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	Stato civile napoleonico e restaurazione	1811–1844	11 volumes listed	11	a hole in the holding — THE DEATH RUN IS MISSING 1813-1821 and it is not an inference: the volume runs 1811, then 1812 twice -- once for Zambrone and once for SAN GIOVANNI, a hamlet with its own register -- then jumps to 1822. Holdings resume only in 1911. Three people this archive wants died inside that gap. THE ROUTE IS THE COMUNE'S OWN SECOND COPY, which is a letter and not a search.
Pizzo, Vibo Valentia	Stato civile della restaurazione	1823	restaurazione only	0	a hole in the holding — STARTS IN 1823 -- tested on 1812, 1814, 1818 and 1822, all empty. That one fact killed three planned searches at once. And the 1837 CHOLERA register survives only as an index of acts 209-325, bound into the ordinary volume; the acts themselves are not digitised.
Messina	Stato civile	1820–1865	366 volumes in 1820, rising to 510 by 1840	0	another archive — The province, not the city: MESSINA ITSELF appears in no Antenati year probed, though the series facet claims 1069 volumes. The 1908 earthquake is the obvious suspect and is NOT established. FamilySearch carries «Messina, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1820-1865» from a different filming -- try there before concluding a record is gone.
Mascali	Stato civile 1820-1893 + Riveli 1616-1752	1616–1893	498 (Catania 452, Palermo 46)	498	reachable — LISTED WHOLE AND VERIFIED: 498 results, 498 distinct arks, and the facets total 498 exactly, so this is the holding and not a sample at the s_size ceiling. Opened 21 September off the 1872 marriage act, which put Giovanni Nicotra resident here. THE 1844 YEAR IS ABSENT from every restaurazione series -- 1843 then 1845. The 46 Palermo volumes are RIVELI, not civil registration: Tribunale del Real Patrimonio 1616-1678 and Deputazione del Regno 1714 and 1747-1752.
Giarre	Stato civile 1820-1893	1820–1893	487 (all Catania)	487	reachable — THE SIXTH TOWN, opened 21 September off the words «nato a GIARRE» in Giovanni Nicotra's 1872 publication certificate. LISTED WHOLE AND VERIFIED, and it took TWO PAGE LOADS: s_size=500 returned 500 against a facet total of 808, and «&s_page=2» returned the remaining 308. 500 is a PAGE SIZE, not a ceiling. CORRECTED 11 OCTOBER 2026, AND THE OLD FIGURE WAS THE WHOLE PROBLEM. This row said 808 and called Giarre «the only one that holds TWO COPIES OF EVERY YEAR». THE SECOND COPY WAS A DIFFERENT COMUNE. 321 of those 808 rows are MACCHIA registers and now live in data/macchia-arks.tsv; GIARRE HOLDS 487. The discriminator is the ark — every an_ua1999* is Macchia, every other is Giarre — checked against eight manifest labels spread over 1821-1871 and corroborated by the two groups sharing no segnatura value at all. THE BELIEF COST A READING: a sweep read MACCHIA Morti 1850 as Giarre's, on the strength of it being «the duplicate deposit», and banked a Giarre negative that was a Macchia one. Giarre Morti now stands at 39 of 41 years read, not 40.
Riposto	Stato civile 1821-1860, 1866-1893	1821–1893	421 (all Catania)	421	reachable — THE SEVENTH TOWN, opened 21 September. LISTED WHOLE AND VERIFIED: 421 results, 421 distinct arks, facet total 421 -- complete in ONE page, under the s_size ceiling. IT REGISTERS SEPARATELY FROM GIARRE FROM 1821, right through the window in which Giovanni Nicotra was born, so «nato a Giarre» from a man of the lower town could be entered here. A GAP 1861-1865 in the middle, between the restaurazione run and the italiano one. AND UNLIKE GIARRE IT HAS ORDINARY NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS: Giarre's only Nicotra in eleven years is a «Dottor Don», where Riposto 1847 alone holds two -- Giuseppe Nicotra x Angela Autieri and Salvadore Nicotra x Maria Barbagallo.
Macchia	Stato civile 1820-1893	1820–1893	321 (all Catania)	321	reachable — SPLIT OUT OF GIARRE ON 11 OCTOBER 2026, where these 321 rows had been filed as Giarre's own second deposit. MACCHIA IS ITS OWN COMUNE, later absorbed into Giarre, and its registers were never a duplicate of Giarre's. Found when a manifest label read «Macchia» where the ark list said Giarre; the ark is the discriminator (an_ua1999*), verified on eight volumes across 1821-1871, and the two groups share no segnatura value. NOT INDEPENDENTLY LISTED AGAINST ANTENATI: this count is what this repository holds after the split, NOT a verified facet total the way Giarre's and Mascali's are, so the holding is a count of rows and the status stays open until the comune is listed in its own right. Series present: Nati 80, Morti 73, Matrimoni 62, Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni 26. ONE YEAR HAS BEEN READ: MACCHIA Morti 1862, swept at D and N for Nicotra and Daidone, both absent.

Holdings, volume by volume

Every register this archive has listed, and how much of it opens today

2601 volumes across 8 comuni, of which 537 can be opened right now — a container is what the image server needs, and buying one costs a page load against a limiter that blocks after about three. Every sweep on this site used to begin by re-deriving these numbers from five files and a memory. The bought column is counted from the banks, not asserted.

A blank in index means «not recorded», never «no index». Only Scilla's restauration bank carries that column at all, which is why the figure is small and why it is not a coverage claim.

Comune	Fondo	Record type	Years	Volumes	Openable	Index seen
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	italiano	Matrimoni	1911–1949	1	—	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Matrimoni	1809–1858	3	2	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Matrimoni, allegati	1812–1850	1	1	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Morti	1809–1858	3	1	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Morti, sepolture	1806	1	—	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Nati	1809–1839	8	1	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Diversi	1827–1861	1	1	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1816–1858	33	31	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Morti	1823–1851	8	2	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Nati	1816–1858	18	15	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	—	Matrimoni, processetti	—	1	—	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	—	Morti	—	1	—	—
Briatico, Vibo Valentia	—	Nati, battesimi	—	1	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze	1866–1893	25	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze, allegati	1872–1893	11	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1893	28	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, allegati	1870–1893	26	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni	1866–1893	29	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni allegati	1871–1893	21	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Morti	1866–1893	29	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Morti, allegati	1866–1893	20	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Nati	1866–1893	37	—	—
Giarre, Catania	italiano	Nati, allegati	1872–1893	19	—	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Diversi	1820–1860	26	—	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1820–1860	41	41	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni	1841–1860	22	—	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1841–1860	20	—	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Morti	1820–1860	45	41	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Nati	1820–1860	47	29	—
Giarre, Catania	restaurazione	Nati, esposti	1820–1860	41	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1893	18	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, allegati	1878–1893	16	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni	1867–1893	17	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni allegati	1878–1893	14	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Morti	1866–1893	28	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Morti, allegati	1878–1887	2	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Nati	1866–1893	26	—	—
Macchia, Catania	italiano	Nati, allegati	1887	1	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Diversi	1842–1859	5	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1821–1862	44	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni	1841–1860	26	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1841–1864	24	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Morti	1821–1862	45	1	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Morti, annotazioni	1852–1893	1	—	—
Macchia, Catania	restaurazione	Nati	1821–1865	54	—	—
Mascali, Catania	deputazione del Regno	Riveli di anime e di terre	1714–1752	40	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze	1866–1893	28	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1893	29	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, allegati	1866–1893	24	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni	1866–1893	28	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni allegati	1866–1893	24	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Morti	1866–1893	29	28	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Morti, allegati	1880	1	—	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Nati	1866–1893	28	5	—
Mascali, Catania	italiano	Nati, allegati	1875	1	—	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Diversi	1820–1865	25	—	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1820–1865	46	27	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni	1841–1865	25	—	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1841–1865	24	—	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni-Morti, annotazioni	1853–1893	1	—	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Morti	1820–1865	49	49	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Nati	1820–1865	45	9	—
Mascali, Catania	restaurazione	Nati, esposti	1820–1865	45	—	—
Mascali, Catania	tribunale del real patrimonio	Riveli di beni e di anime	1616–1678	6	1	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	deputazione del Regno	Riveli di anime e di terre	1714–1752	9	2	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze	1866–1893	28	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze, allegati	1872–1883	3	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1893	29	6	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, allegati	1866–1893	26	2	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni	1866–1893	28	1	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni allegati	1870–1893	22	2	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Morti	1866–1893	28	5	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Morti, allegati	1869–1893	22	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Nati	1866–1893	29	15	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	italiano	Nati, allegati	1871–1893	10	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Diversi	1825–1865	21	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1820–1865	46	21	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni	1841–1845	5	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1841–1860	20	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni-Morti, annotazioni	1852–1894	1	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Morti	1820–1865	50	—	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Nati	1820–1865	53	23	—
Piedimonte Etneo, Catania	restaurazione	Nati, esposti	1820–1864	27	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze	1866–1893	27	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Cittadinanze, allegati	1868–1891	5	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1893	29	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, allegati	1866–1893	28	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni	1866–1893	28	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Matrimoni, pubblicazioni allegati	1866–1893	17	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Morti	1866–1893	28	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Morti, allegati	1866–1893	12	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Nati	1866–1893	28	—	—
Riposto, Catania	italiano	Nati, allegati	1867–1893	10	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Diversi	1842–1860	19	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1821–1860	40	26	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, memorandum notificazioni ed opposizioni	1841–1860	24	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1841–1860	20	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Morti	1821–1860	43	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Morti, annotazioni	1851–1900	1	—	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Nati	1821–1860	49	13	—
Riposto, Catania	restaurazione	Nati, esposti	1848–1860	13	—	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	italiano	Matrimoni	1866–1913	48	22	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	italiano	Matrimoni-pubblicazioni	1888	1	1	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	italiano	Morti	1866–1943	81	17	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	napoleonico	Matrimoni	1809–1815	6	6	none in 1
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	napoleonico	Matrimoni-processetti	1810–1816	2	2	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	napoleonico	Morti	1809–1815	5	—	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	napoleonico	Nati	1810–1815	4	—	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	restaurazione	Matrimoni	1816–1865	54	30	2
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	restaurazione	Matrimoni-processetti	1817–1865	20	4	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	restaurazione	Morti	1817–1865	51	16	—
Scilla, Reggio Calabria	restaurazione	Nati	1816–1865	55	31	1
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Matrimoni	1811–1858	2	2	—
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Matrimoni, indice	1812	1	1	—
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Morti	1811–1840	2	2	—
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	napoleonico	Nati	1811–1839	2	—	—
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Diversi	1826–1844	1	—	—
Zambrone, Vibo Valentia	restaurazione	Matrimoni, processetti	1826–1837	2	2	—

Indexed by name

Where Antenati has done the indexing, the volume index does not matter

A comune whose acts are indexed by name answers a query in one request, with the father, the mother and the spouse — no volume, no Tavola, no sweep. Three of the eight comuni this family touches are indexed, and the act type differs between them, which is the trap: assuming Scilla's «deaths only» held everywhere would have been wrong at Pizzo.

Scilla, Reggio Calabria — Morti, 1911–1943
Pizzo, Vibo Valentia — Nati, 1868–1903
Catania — Morti, 1911 onward

Not indexed at all: Piedimonte Etneo, Catania, Briatico, Vibo Valentia, Zambrone, Vibo Valentia, San Costantino Calabro, Vibo Valentia, Potenzoni (Briatico), Vibo Valentia, Mascali, Catania, Giarre, Catania, Riposto, Catania. For these the annual Tavola is the instrument, and the work list records which years carry one.

Method, so it is not rediscovered. The Antenati register index takes ?localita=X&s_size=500 and returns the whole holding in one page load — but 500 is the ceiling, and above it the request times out. The true total is in the result facets, as Archivio di Stato di … (N), one line per holding archive. Compare the two before believing a listing is complete. A 500-of-555 listing reported as a gap is the same error as a half-read index section reported as a negative.

Everything read, and everything still to read

This page opened with the sentence “no Italian civil register has been opened for this family”, and that was the honest headline on the day the archive was built. It stopped being true a long time before it was taken down. What follows is every search, negatives included.

271 searches · everything is listed; the filters only narrow it

37 of these 271 returned nothing, and that is the point of the page: a source that came back empty is the difference between «we have not looked» and «it is not there».

When	What was read	Looked for	What came back
10 Sep 2026	MyHeritage GEDCOM export done	614 individuals, 212 families, 39 cited sources, 133 images.	Parsed in full. 15 duplicate records merged on evidence; 58 shared names left deliberately unmerged; 14 disconnected components identified.
10 Sep 2026	The 133 tree images done	Signed MyHeritage links, due to expire 16 September 2026.	All 133 downloaded and stored in the repository, and all 133 published.
10 Sep 2026	Component analysis done	Is this one family tree?	No. It is 14 pieces. The largest holds 479 people; the second holds 111 Piedimonte Etneo Mazza joined to the rest by nothing. Recorded, not papered over.
10 Sep 2026	Ancestral reconstruction from the living generation upward done	Rather than downward from an assumed founder.	Michael Rocco Mazza has 59 recorded ancestors across 9 generations. The four quarters reach 1697, 1821, 1851 and 1879 respectively.
10 Sep 2026	Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries register (Nudgee) done	18 surnames swept against the Archdiocese's own deceased register — the cemetery is not in the Brisbane City Council search.	90 register rows; 19 matched to this archive with plot, register number and exact dates. Corrected the tree in 6 places. Found the four grandparents in consecutive plots V-1026 to V-1029.
10 Sep 2026	NAA passenger arrivals index, 1898–1972 done	18 surnames swept, then 18 targeted name searches against the National Archives of Australia's voyage-level index.	Named the ship for 9 of the 18 crossings, including Sebastiano Mazza (Toscana, 4 Oct 1949) and Michele Mazza (Palermo, 21 Apr 1925). Corrected four ports of arrival or embarkation.
10 Sep 2026	Antenati — nine annual indexes, three comuni done	Piedimonte Etneo Nati 1877, 1878, 1879 (+supplement), 1880, 1881; Mascali 1879; Giarre 1879. Archivio di Stato di Catania.	A NULL on Salvatore Mazza in all nine. Five Mazza births found: Antonino and Grazia (1877), Rosaria and Venerio (1879), Gaetano (1880); none at all in 1878, 1881, Mascali or Giarre. Acts 167 and 205 transcribed in full, documenting three Mazza braccianti of Via Terremorte.
10 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM historical index done	Free Registry index — deaths to 1996, marriages to 1951, births to 1926. Searched on the FATHER'S and MOTHER'S names, not the person's.	Six registrations. Proved Michele Mazza (d. 14 Nov 1926) and Rosario Mazza (b. 1899) sons of Salvatore Mazza and Maria Concetta Nicotra, and therefore Sebastiano's brothers. Confirmed Maria Nicotra's own parents, Sebastiano and Domenica as Mary Rosa's parents, and Maria Mazza's 1939 marriage to Rosario Coco.
10 Sep 2026	VA Nationwide Gravesite Locator done	The three Polistena the tree places at Arneytown, New Jersey.	TWO people in ONE plot, not three. Joseph Polistena, PFC US Army, Second World War, Section O3 Site 8647; Santa Polistena entered as his wife in the same site. Confirmed the archive's merge of the two Joseph records and corrected Santa's death date by a month.
10 Sep 2026	FamilySearch full-text — Piedimonte Etneo done	The endpoint recorded in the Falco archive's method notes, over parish registers and civil series Antenati does not hold for this comune (marriages there stop at 1893).	THE ARCHIVE'S CENTRAL QUESTION, ANSWERED. Salvatore Mazza's birth act (5 Jan 1873), his parish marriage (1898), his death act (1929), and marriage proclamations of 1898, 1902 and 1910 naming Rosario's age each time. Proved the 110 unattached Mazza to be the descendants of Salvatore's brothers, and produced a new generation, Mariano Mazza.
10 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1870, 1892 and 1851 done	Three annual indexes at the Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria, plus two acts read in full.	Act 230 of 1892 gave Giuseppe Arena's exact birth (6 October, Via Grotte 75), confirmed Concetta Russo as his mother, and CORRECTED his father Giovanni Arena's birth year by eleven years — 33 in the act, so born about 1859, not 1870. Act 81 of 1870 gave three Arena generations but proved to be a different household. NO DONATO AT ALL in the 1851 index.
10 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1913, index transcribed in full done	All eleven index openings, images 75–85. The IIIF images are not rate-limited, only the portal's HTML is.	58 marriages, 77 surnames — and no Arena, no Donato, no Polistena and no Mazza among them. The Polistena–Donato marriage is not in 1913. One index entry that read as a Mazza bride is Muzzi in the act itself.
	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1875, 1876 and 1882 onward outstanding	Salvatore Mazza, if the year is further out than two.	Each volume carries its own index, so this is index reads, not volume reads.
	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni outstanding	The marriage of Salvatore Mazza and Concetta Greco, c. 1870; and any Rosario Mazza marriage.	A marriage act names both fathers — the fastest route to Rosario.
	Antenati — the acts behind index entries 164, 168 (1877) and 66 (1880) outstanding	The fathers of Mazza Antonino, Grazia and Gaetano.	Three more Mazza households for the cost of three crops.
	Antenati / Catania outstanding	Salvatore Mazza, who died at Catania in 1929.	A large city's registers — a much bigger job.
	Antenati — Catanzaro / Vibo Valentia, Briatico outstanding	The whole Prostamo, Melluso and Anile descent, 1809 onward.	Would convert eight asserted generations into documented ones.
	Antenati — Scilla, Nati around 1859 outstanding	GIOVANNI ARENA, now known to be born about 1859 rather than 1870. The Bourbon-era index NAMES THE PARENTS, so one opening would give his father and mother outright.	The best single lead the archive currently holds. The restaurazione arks are not computable from the year — the series interleaves Nati, Morti and Matrimoni — so each year costs one portal page load.
	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1845–1860 for a Donato outstanding	MICHELE DONATO, absent from 1851 where the tree puts him. His eldest son was born 1878, so he is somewhere in that window.	This archive has now found the tree six years out on two Mazza births and eleven years out on Giovanni Arena. A wrong year is the likelier explanation than a wrong town.
	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1899, atto 62 outstanding	Arena Domenico × Arena Maria, 30 November 1899 — named in the margin of act 81 of 1870.	Would name four parents and close out the 1870 household, which is not the tree's but is a real Scilla Arena line.
	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1866–1913 outstanding	FORTY-EIGHT volumes, not eight. This archive had recorded the series as starting in 1905; it starts in 1866. 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1894 have been read; 1888 is water-damaged across the A entries and cannot be.	Two Arena weddings found in 1885. Rocco Arena × Generosa Costa still missing; Giovanni Polistena × Nunziata Donato and Michele Donato's marriage are now both inside the window and unsearched.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1866–1943 done	EIGHTY-ONE volumes, and this archive did not know they existed. The annual index gives a patronymic — «di X» where the father lives, «fu X» where he does not — as well as the act number. The A block has been read for 1889–1896 and for 1897–1908.	BOTH OF THEM FOUND AND THE ROW CLOSES. FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, Morti 1901 atto 96, dead 29 August 1901; SERAFINA ARLOTTA, Morti 1908 atto 55, dead 24 April 1908 — both at VIA GROTTE NUMBER TWO. Twenty years of index reading, and the two acts are in the same house. Six unread Arena leads came out of the sweep and are listed on the sweep's own row.
	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni pubblicazioni 1866–1913 outstanding	FORTY-SIX volumes of banns, each with its own annual index — which is how the 1888 marriage was found when the marriage index itself was destroyed by water across exactly the A entries.	Arena Rocco / Costa Generosa, under A in the 1888 banns index. Everything else in the series is unread.
	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1874–1878 outstanding	The first search the corrected coverage note made possible: Michele Donato's marriage, about 1875–77. Indexes read for 1874, 1876, 1877 and 1878; 1875 has no index at all and its acts 3–26 were scanned by the margin boxes.	NEGATIVE. No Donato Michele among the grooms. But Donato Candeloro marries in 1874 and again in 1877, Donato Bruno in 1878 and a Donato Carmela in 1875 — so the Donato were a Scilla family all along, and the idea that the surname arrived late is dead.
	Antenati — Reggio Calabria, Scilla outstanding	Arena, Polistena and Donato, 1809 onward.
	National Archives of Australia — the nine remaining crossings outstanding	Domenica Prostamo, March 1951, is not in the index under either surname.	Nine of eighteen are still unnamed.
	CEMLA — Argentine immigration outstanding	The Buenos Aires Prostamo.
	FamilySearch full-text search outstanding	Piedimonte Etneo and Briatico parish registers.	The technique that broke the Falco line open.
13 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871 and Nati 1845 done	The marriage of Rosario Mazza and Leonarda Bonanno, and Rosario's own birth. Found by abandoning the parish film: civil registration began in the south in 1866, so a marriage of about 1870 is a CIVIL act.	BOTH FOUND. Matrimoni 1871 atto 14 — 30 April 1871, both spouses braccianti, all four parents named, HERS FOR THE FIRST TIME (Gaetano Bonanno and Anna Cavallaro). Nati 1845 atto 64 — born 2 June 1845, father Mariano, 36, bracciale, mother Maria Catalano, 36. The tree's 1850 is five years out.
13 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1820–1845 done	Twenty-six consecutive years, the whole civil series from its first volume, read for a Mazza groom.	EXACTLY ONE in twenty-six years: Mariano Mazza, act 17 of 1836, to Agata Catalano of Macchia, «figlio di IGNAZIO e di GIUSEPPA PULVIRENTI». Recorded as a LEAD, not a fact — the bride is Agata where Rosario's acts say Maria, and the groom's age is three years out. Innocenzio Mazza did not marry there either.
13 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847 done	Four years read ENTIRE — over five hundred births — for brothers and sisters of Rosario Mazza.	HE HAS NONE THERE. Mariano Mazza and Maria Catalano appear once, at act 64 of 1845. The only other Mazza births belong to Innocenzio Mazza and Domenica Cavallaro — the couple the archive's OTHER Piedimonte Mazza line descends from, which raises the question whether Ignazio's sons were Mariano and Innocenzio.
13 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1854, act located by arithmetic done	The 1854 Tavola carries no act numbers. Two acts to an opening, act = 66 + 2×(image−36), which puts late April at images 39–41.	ACT 76. Giovanni Arena born 30 April 1854, declared by his grandfather GIOVANNI ARLOTTA, 75, marinaro, «figlio del fu DOMENICO». The Tavola said «Rosa Arlotta» and 20 April and was wrong twice. Giovanni Arena is Rocco's FULL BROTHER, and DOMENICO ARLOTTA is the deepest name on the Calabrian side.
13 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1885 and 1888 done	The corrected coverage note opened forty-eight volumes. 1885 for the Arena weddings; 1888 for Rocco Arena's own.	THREE ACTS. 1885 atto 73 and atto 86: two of Rocco's brothers married seven weeks apart. 1888 atto 63: ROCCO ARENA'S OWN MARRIAGE ACT names his parents outright — Francesco Antonio Arena and Serafina Arlotta — and gives Generosa Costa's parents for the first time, Antonio Costa and ANNA ARLOTTA.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni pubblicazioni 1888 done	The 1888 marriage index is destroyed by water across exactly the A entries. The BANNS are a separate series of 46 volumes with their own annual index.	THE WAY ROUND A DESTROYED INDEX. Publication 63, 18 November 1888: Francesco Antonio Arena appears IN PERSON, alive, sixty-eight, a pescatore, a week short of sixty-nine. And the couple swore there was no impediment of kinship — so Rocco and Generosa were NOT first cousins.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1855 done	The year nobody had read. The archive had read 1851 (the tree's date), 1856 and 1859 (a declared age) and closed the search.	MICHELE DONATO, BORN 3 OCTOBER 1855, act 163 — «DOMENICO DONATO, figlio di CANDELORO, trentotto, marinaro» and «NUNZIATA SOFI, trentasette». Three generations in one act, the ages exact at both ends, and the longest open question in the archive answered.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1889–1896 (recorded at the time as 1889–1902) done	Eighty-one volumes of deaths, 1866–1943, that this archive did not know existed. The annual index carries a PATRONYMIC as well as a name.	CORRECTED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026, AND THE CORRECTION IS THE POINT. This row was written as «neither Francesco Antonio Arena nor Serafina Arlotta in thirteen years». FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA DIED IN 1901, act 96, inside the span this row claimed to have cleared. Either those later indexes were read and he was missed, or — far more likely, since the containers for 1897–1908 were still being bought three days later — the row counted years it had not opened. It does not matter which: A NEGATIVE IS ONLY WORTH THE PAGES ACTUALLY TURNED, and this one was written wider than its evidence. The years this archive can stand behind are 1889–1896. What the row did genuinely find stands: Fortunato Arena (ten days old, Via Grotte 70), Maria Donato (twenty-eight months, Via Grotte 21) and Orazio Arena — who turns out NOT to be the tree's Orazio.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1874–1885 and 1838–1847 done	Michele Donato's own marriage, eleven years; and his parents' marriage, six years.	BOTH NEGATIVE, and both informative. Michele is neither born nor married at Scilla in the window — he came from elsewhere already married. And 1843 act 11 shows a DONATO ANTONIO «figlio di BRUNO»: there are at least TWO Donato lines in the town, which is why the Donato marriages of the 1870s are numerous and none is his.
14 Sep 2026	FamilySearch — the New Orleans manifest of the Liguria, 1908, BOTH PAGES done	American manifests from 1907 are two-page forms. This archive had only ever read page one.	THE VERSO CARRIES COLUMN 29, PLACE OF BIRTH. Against line 15, Michele Donato: «R. Calabria / Scilla». Lines 9–11 of the same sheet say Tresilico, so the clerk was distinguishing. That sent the search back to the Scilla registers, where it belonged.
14 Sep 2026	FindMyPast — passenger lists, marriages, censuses, parish index done	A one-week trial. Twenty-six outcomes recorded.	Rocco Arena's four crossings named and shipped (Elysia 1892, Suevia 1894, Trave 1900, San Guglielmo 1913) and the 1894 no longer «probable». The 1913 manifest's RELATION columns name his wife and a nephew. Rocco Arlotta, the 1900 lodger, identified by his marriage and confirmed by his children's names. AND ONE RETRACTION: the Clementina Arena crossing this archive had held for months belongs to another family.
14 Sep 2026	The archive's own negatives, audited done	Nine negatives re-read — not repeated, but examined for what set each window.	FIVE HAD ALREADY FAILED. Every failed window came from a declared age or an assumed eldest child. The rule: widen such a window by at least five years in both directions before a negative inside it means anything. Published at /audit.
	Antenati — Vibo Valentia, Briatico and Soriano Calabro outstanding	The whole Prostamo, Melluso and Anile descent, 1809 onward — the fourth quarter, and the one with no register work at all behind it.	Would convert eight asserted generations into documented ones. The largest single gap in this archive.
	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Morti 1878 onward outstanding	Mariano Mazza's death. He was alive in January 1873; the M block is clear for 1873, 1875, 1876 and 1877.	1874 CANNOT BE READ — the volume carries «pag. ondulate, pag. macchiata, tutto il volume, impossibile fare di meglio» and the index is a black wash. He died in 1874 or after 1877.
	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1848–1854 outstanding	Domenico Donato × Nunziata Sofi. Both born about 1817–18, so the window is 1838–1848 and the later half is unread.	Seven years, one image each, containers already recorded. 1842 and 1844 defeated their own indexes and need the acts by margin scan.
	Trove — the Brisbane Italian community outstanding	Arrivals, naturalisations, the 1942 internments, and the Queensland Italian press.	One mention in this archive. The Australian end of all four quarters is almost unsourced.
15 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — beyond the six registrations done	The Nudgee end of every one of the four quarters, searched on parents' names rather than the person's.	Three mentions. The index is free and the technique that produced six registrations has not been run out. DONE 15 SEPTEMBER. All ten surnames swept by exact surname across births, marriages and deaths. The find was the CRUPI -- three brothers of Angela nobody here knew about. The rest is the shape of the index rather than of the family: POLISTENA and ANILE return NOTHING AT ALL and PROSTAMO returns ONE record, because births stop in 1926, marriages in 1951 and deaths in 1996 and these people arrived in 1949. ARENA returns seventy-five and not one is ours -- an Irish-Australian family entirely unconnected to Scilla.
	Find a Grave — Nudgee Catholic cemetery outstanding	Photographs and inscriptions against the nineteen burials the Archdiocese register gave.	Two mentions. An inscription often carries a birth date the register does not.
	NARA New York — Rocco Arena's naturalisation outstanding	He is entered as a US CITIZEN on the manifests of both 1900 and 1913, so a declaration and petition exist from before March 1900.	FindMyPast's petition set begins too late for him. This is a National Archives job, not a subscription one.
	The Catholic Heritage Archive — Our Lady of Loretto transcripts outstanding	Eighty-four Arena baptisms are indexed and readable; the transcripts, which carry the MOTHER'S NAME and the GODPARENTS, are a higher subscription tier.	Godparents in an emigrant parish are almost always kin. They would settle at a stroke whether the Giovanni Arena baptising a child in 1900 is Rocco's brother.
14 Sep 2026	Geneanet — surname sweep done	PROSTAMO, MELLUSO, ANILE, VENTRICE, ARLOTTA searched across all Geneanet record sets (trees, archives, transcriptions).	No holding touches this family. PROSTAMO returns eight entries, every one a New Haven or Hamden, Connecticut vital record 1914-1955 — an American cluster of the surname, untested against Briatico and claimed as nothing. MELLUSO (506) is an Agrigento family. VENTRICE (730) is Ustica and French Algeria. ARLOTTA (881) is Buffalo, New York. ANILE (476) clusters at Pizzo, eleven km from Briatico, but no entry reaches our people.
14 Sep 2026	Geneanet — place sweep done	place__0__ searched on Briatico, Piedimonte Etneo, Scilla, Soriano Calabro.	Piedimonte Etneo holds 1,703 individuals, Briatico 132. Both are user-submitted trees, heavily from single uploaders (pigellino74, rcparedes). Not sources; leads at best.
	Geneanet Premium — MAZZA at Piedimonte Etneo not-yet	897 individuals named MAZZA indexed at Piedimonte Etneo. The result list is withheld behind Geneanet Premium.	THE LARGEST UNOPENED BODY OF PIEDIMONTE MAZZA DATA FOUND ANYWHERE. 897 entries against the 22 acts this archive has read. Whether any of them is ours is untested and untestable without a subscription. Recorded as a door, not a finding.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Nati 1818 done	The whole year read: 25 births, both pages of the Tavola.	NEGATIVE, and complete. No child of any given name carries the surname Prostamo. The index is alphabetised by the child's GIVEN name, so the absence is of the surname from the year entirely, not of one Domenico.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Nati 1819 done	The whole year read: 34 births, all three Tavola pages.	NEGATIVE, and complete. No Prostamo among the 34. Two Anile households appear (Giuseppe Anile and Annunziata Polito; Vincenzo Anile and Rosaria Francica) — the surname is documented in Briatico, which it had not been before.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — the Potenzoni discovery done	Searched the register index on localita=Potenzoni after three straight years of Briatico births turned up no Prostamo at all.	POTENZONI IS ITS OWN COMUNE ON ANTENATI, WITH 57 REGISTERS. It is a frazione of Briatico and it kept its own civil register from 1806. Everything read at Briatico so far has been the wrong parish if the family lived there. Births 1812-1837 are a single 364-image volume; marriages 1812-1858 a single 293-image volume; and the marriage allegati 1812-1850 hold the spouses' own birth certificates. This is the largest unopened door in the Calabrian half of the archive.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Potenzoni, Nati 1812-1837 superseded	364 images, an_ua37927182 / container 0AQJBAW. Domenico Prostamo, born about 1820, would fall in it.	SUPERSEDED THE SAME DAY. This was opened on the reasoning that Domenico Prostamo, born about 1820, must be in the frazione if he was not in Briatico. His marriage act of 1849 then said he was NATO IN PIZZO and born in 1814. The volume is mapped and the mapping is kept, but this family is not in it.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Potenzoni, Matrimoni 1812-1858 superseded	293 images, an_ua37923835 / container 5K1ln7r. Domenico Prostamo married Giovanna Ventrice somewhere in this span.	SUPERSEDED THE SAME DAY. Domenico Prostamo married Giovanna Ventrice at BRIATICO on 14 June 1849, act 1 — found in the Briatico register, not this one. The Potenzoni mapping is kept for whoever needs that comune.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Potenzoni, Nati: the volume opened and mapped done	an_ua37927182 / container 0AQJBAW, 364 images. Located the annual blocks: fourteen images to a year, two acts to an opening, each year closed by a Rubrica listing every birth in date order. 1818 index at image 66, 1819 at 80, 1820 at 104-106.	PARTIAL. Potenzoni 1818 read in full (entries 12-21) and 1820 read in part (entries 7-16 of 23). No Prostamo in either. Two cautions recorded for whoever continues: the photographer left the 1819 Tavola and a title sheet lying on top of EVERY frame in this run, so the printed year visible at the head of an image is not the year of the page beneath it; and the volume is not purely Potenzoni — the register bound in at image 106 is headed «Comune di Briatico», for 1822, which suggests these are the second originals deposited with the tribunal and that Briatico years sit inside the Potenzoni unit.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Matrimoni 1840, 1841, 1842 done	Read by cropping the parroco's right-hand certificate box, which names both spouses, from every page and montaging them.	NEGATIVE for Prostamo. 1840 has three marriages, 1841 about five, 1842 thirteen. Act 8 of 1842 was opened in full to test a suspected Prostamo in the margin: it is Giuseppe Artesi, 19, son of the late Nicola Artesi and Nicolina Corassi, marrying Alfonsina Petrarca, 15, born at Pizzinni, daughter of the late Francesco Antonio Petrarca and the late Rosa Arena. Not ours. The suspected name was a misreading of a 240-pixel thumbnail and was never claimed.
14 Sep 2026	Trove — Prostamo, all collections done	Keyword PROSTAMO across newspapers, gazettes, books, archives and people.	ELEVEN newspaper and gazette results, and the useful ones are all Commonwealth Gazette naturalisations at Brisbane: ASSUNTA MARIA PROSTAMO of 3 Frank Street, Graceville, naturalised 4 July 1966; DOMENICO FRANCESCO PROSTAMO of 38 Park Terrace, Sherwood, naturalised 1 October 1962; and ANGELA PROSTAMO, gazetted 16 November 1961. Three named Brisbane Prostamo with street addresses and exact dates — new to this archive, and untested against the line.
14 Sep 2026	Trove — Prostamo before 1954 done	The same keyword against the digitised Queensland newspapers, and PROSTAMO + funeral.	NEGATIVE. Not one Prostamo appears in a digitised Australian newspaper before 1961, and Domenica Prostamo's death on 3 May 1928 produced no notice that Trove holds. Weak evidence on its own — ordinary families rarely reach print — but it means the Brisbane newspapers will not date this family's arrival.
14 Sep 2026	Trove — Melluso at Brisbane done	Keyword MELLUSO Brisbane.	Four results, all incidental: a 1964 Telegraph court list, a 1967 naturalisation gazette in which the name appears only in the surrounding column, and Commonwealth Savings Bank trustee notices of 1972. Nothing that touches Caterina Melluso or her father Leone.
14 Sep 2026	Find a Grave — Prostamo and Melluso across Australia done	Both surnames searched nationally, not just at Nudgee.	SIX PROSTAMO AND FIVE MELLUSO, and NOT ONE AT NUDGEE, where every Australian Mazza in this archive is buried. Domenico Francesco Prostamo (1931-2025) and Maria Assunta Prostamo (1936-1991) lie in adjoining plots 608 and 607 at Mount Gravatt, Brisbane; Angela Majda Prostamo (1937-2016) at Nerang; and Rocco (1925-2004) and Francesca (1933-2018) Prostamo at Glenroy in MELBOURNE — a branch this archive did not know existed. Gregorio Melluso (1904-1971) is at Mareeba in the far north, Section 4 Catholic, Row I, Plot 10.
14 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — the historical index, by download done	The registrar's own downloadSearch endpoint returns the full result set as CSV, which makes an exact-surname sweep of births 1829-1926, marriages 1829-1951 and deaths 1829-1996 a single request per name. Prostamo, Postamo, Melluso, Limardo, Borello, Polistena.	One Prostamo in the whole index: Maria Assunta, died 27 October 1991, born 1936, parents Gregorio Melluso and Carmela Maria Borello. One Melluso: Gregorio, died 30 September 1971, parents Gennaro Melluso and Maria Limardo. Postamo, Limardo and Polistena return nothing at all. The eleven Borello are one Piedmontese household and not hers.
	The Mount Gravatt burial records not-yet	Brisbane City Council's cemetery search covers Mount Gravatt as the Nudgee endpoint covers Nudgee.	Plots 607 and 608 are known. The adjoining plots on either side are not, and at Nudgee it was the neighbouring plots that joined families to each other.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Matrimoni 1840-1849 and 1853 done	Every page of every volume read by cropping the parroco's certificate box, which names both spouses, and montaging them.	THE MARRIAGE WAS FOUND. Briatico 1849 ATTO 1, 14 June: DOMENICO PROSTAMO marries GIOVANNA VENTRICE. Thirteen years of Briatico marriages were read to reach it — 1840 to 1848 hold no Prostamo at all, and neither do 1850, 1851, 1852 or 1854, read earlier. The act names ANTONINO PROSTAMO and MARIA FRAGALÀ, and says Domenico was born at PIZZO.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, the registers done	Domenico Prostamo was born at Pizzo about 1813; his mother Maria Fragalà was still living there in 1849; and the family tree puts his grandfather Pasquale's death at Pizzo on 4 January 1829.	ANSWERED, AND IT IS A WALL. Pizzo's holdings on Antenati contain ONLY the restaurazione fondo and BEGIN IN 1823 — tested on 1812, 1814, 1818 and 1822, all empty, and on 1823, which returns four volumes. Pasquale Prostamo's death act of January 1829 was read. Domenico Prostamo's birth act of 1814 and Antonino Prostamo's marriage cannot be opened at all.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Matrimoni allegati 1849 done	The processetti filed with atto 1 of 1849.	DONE THE SAME DAY. The bundle is an_ua37921205 (Matrimoni processetti 1849-1854, container LDnmr1B) and its first file is Domenico Prostamo's. It gave Antonino Prostamo's death in the 1837 cholera register, a certified copy of Pasquale's death act filed as the groom's avo paterno, Domenico's own birth extract under the name ANTONIO, the atto di notorieta reconciling the two names, and two Ventrice death extracts.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Potenzoni, in hindsight done	Opened on the reasoning that three Prostamo-free years of Briatico births meant the family was in the frazione.	THE REASONING WAS WRONG AND THE NEGATIVE WAS RIGHT. They were not at Potenzoni either; they were at Pizzo. Recorded because the mistake is instructive: an absence was read as evidence for a specific alternative rather than as evidence of absence, and the right move would have been to find a document that says where they were — which is what the marriage act eventually did. The Potenzoni mapping is kept; it is good work on a comune this family does not appear to belong to.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, Morti 1829 done	Opened the same afternoon the 1849 marriage act pointed at Pizzo. The tree puts Pasquale Prostamo's death there on 4 January 1829, which meant the first few acts of the volume.	FOUND AT ACT 7. PASQUALE PROSTAMO, seventy-five, MARINARO, VEDOVO DI CATERINA MUSO, born at Pizzo, of the Castello quarter, died on 13 JANUARY 1829 — nine days after the date the tree gives, and at an age that puts his birth about 1753 rather than 1760. His own parents' lines in the act are blank. Acts 1 to 6 of the year were read to reach it and are other families.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, Morti 1845-1848 and 1849-1851 superseded	Antonino Prostamo, marinaro, was dead by 14 June 1849 and his widow Maria Fragalà was living at Pizzo that month.	SUPERSEDED. Antonino Prostamo did not die in this window: he died on 31 DECEMBER 1837, and in Pizzo's separate register of CHOLERA deaths, act 327. Written before the marriage processetti were opened.
	The second generation, and why it may be out of reach not-yet	Pasquale Prostamo was born about 1753 and married before 1809.	His death act leaves his parents blank, and civil registration in Calabria does not begin until 1809 — so his own birth and marriage are in PARISH books, which Antenati does not hold. The family tree's first two generations, 1697 and 1726, may not be testable online at all. Worth saying plainly rather than leaving them looking merely unresearched.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Matrimoni processetti 1849-1854 done	an_ua37921205 / container LDnmr1B, 124 images. The first bundle in the volume is Domenico Prostamo's, read page by page.	THE SINGLE RICHEST DOCUMENT THIS ARCHIVE HAS OPENED. It holds ANTONINO PROSTAMO'S DEATH — 31 December 1837, aged 56, atto 327 of PIZZO'S SEPARATE REGISTER OF CHOLERA DEATHS; a certified copy of PASQUALE's death act filed as the groom's «avo paterno», which PROVES the descent Pasquale-Antonino-Domenico; DOMENICO'S OWN BIRTH EXTRACT, act 285 of Pizzo Nati 1814, 2 April 1814, registered under the name ANTONIO; the ATTO DI NOTORIETÀ sworn on the wedding morning to reconcile the two names; the Pizzo banns of April 1849; and TWO VENTRICE DEATH EXTRACTS reaching the bride's great-grandparents.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, Morti 1845-1848 superseded	an_ua37926974 / wb6b4dg, 406 images, opened as the obvious place to look for Antonino Prostamo's death.	SUPERSEDED. Antonino Prostamo did not die in this window: he died on 31 DECEMBER 1837, and in Pizzo's separate register of CHOLERA deaths, act 327. Written before the marriage processetti were opened.
	Antenati — Pizzo, the cholera register of 1837 not-yet	Antonino Prostamo is act 327 in it. The chancery's 1849 extract quotes the entry; the register itself has not been opened.	Worth opening for the act as it stands in the book, and for whoever else of this family the epidemic took. Act 327 by 31 December means the cholera killed on that scale in one town in one year.
	Antenati — Pizzo, Nati 1814, atto 285 not-yet	Domenico Prostamo's birth, quoted in full by the extract in his marriage bundle.	The extract is a certified copy and gives everything; the original act is still worth opening, because this archive has now watched a Pizzo chancery copy lose ten years off a man's age between an act and its certificate.
	Antenati — Zambrone and the Ventrice not-yet	Domenico Ventrice died at Zambrone on 13 January 1815, act 40, son of the late Paolo Ventrice and the late Anna Pappa.	Zambrone is a third Calabrian comune this archive has never opened, and the bride's line runs into it.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, the 1837 cholera register: WHERE IT IS AND IS NOT done	Opened an_ua37926907 (Morti 1836-1840, container LevaEPW, 427 images) and read it end to end at thumbnail scale; also the Diversi 1827-1861 volume (an_ua37923734 / LmpVVqq, 121 images), the anno=1837 filter, and the full Pizzo register listing.	THE CHOLERA REGISTER ITSELF IS NOT ON ANTENATI — BUT ITS INDEX IS, AND THE SHAPE OF THE VOLUME TELLS THE STORY. Pizzo's ORDINARY death register for 1837 runs to act 207 and stops on 16 JULY 1837 (images 89-194). From act 209 the town was entering its dead in a SECOND REGISTER. That register's pages are not digitised — but its TAVOLA IS, bound in at images 195-206, indexing acts 209 to 325 with names, ages, trades, quarters and relationships. Antonino Prostamo is act 327, just past the last indexed entry. So the certified extract of 20 May 1849 in the Briatico processetti is, as far as this archive can reach, THE ONLY READABLE TEXT OF ACT 327. Checked and excluded: the Diversi volume (it holds deaths outside the comune, not cholera); a separately catalogued 1837 Morti volume (the anno=1837 filter returns Nati and Matrimoni only); and a cholera section bound at the end of the Morti volume (the volume closes normally with 1840 and its Tavola).
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo 1837, the roll of the second register done	Read the whole surviving index, acts 209-325, by cropping the N. d'ordine and Nomi de' morti columns from all twenty-four pages and montaging them.	NO PROSTAMO among the 117 indexed. The index stops at 325 and Antonino is 327. It does hold FOUR VENTRICE at Pizzo — Giovanni, 52, falegname, alla Piazza (act 251); Laura, 28, filatrice, al Castello (294); Benedetto, 26, filatore, all'Incoronata (295); and Diamante Aloi, 70, «vedova di Giuseppe Ventrice del Pizzo» (302). The bride's surname is at Pizzo as well as at Briatico and Zambrone. Recorded as a lead and nothing more: Ventrice is common on that coast and no document joins these to Giovanna.
	The Pizzo cholera register of 1837, wherever it now is not-yet	Acts 209 to at least 327, July to December 1837. Not in Antenati's Pizzo holdings.	It would be at the Archivio di Stato di Catanzaro or with the comune. It holds Antonino Prostamo's act as written, and the names of something over a hundred more people the epidemic took in one small town in six months.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone, Morti: the 1815 act cannot be read done	Opened an_ua37932358 (Morti 1811-1839, container w9dp62r, 234 images) — Zambrone's ONLY pre-unification death volume — and mapped every year in it by sampling the act headers end to end.	THE VOLUME RUNS 1811, THEN 1812 TWICE (Zambrone proper and SAN GIOVANNI, a frazione that kept its own register), AND THEN JUMPS STRAIGHT TO 1822. Verified monotonic from there: 1822 at image 40, 1824 at 74, 1825 at 80, 1826 at 90, 1829 at 108, 1830 at 120, 1831 at 145, 1833 at 170, 1835 at 195, 1838 at 220, 1839 at 232. THE YEARS 1813 TO 1821 ARE NOT IN IT, and Antenati's Zambrone holdings then stop until 1911. So Domenico Ventrice's act — 40 of 13 January 1815 — has no original this archive can open. For the second time in one day, a certified extract in the Briatico marriage bundle is the ONLY readable text of an act.
	Zambrone, Morti 1813-1821, wherever they are not-yet	Nine years missing from the digitised volume.	At the Archivio di Stato di Catanzaro or with the comune. They hold Domenico Ventrice's act as written, and would settle whether he was fifty or fifty-eight.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone, Matrimoni 1811-1858: THEIR MARRIAGE CANNOT BE IN IT done	an_ua37928578 / container wWyoZJ2, 253 images, Zambrone's only pre-unification marriage volume. Opened, mapped by year, and sampled through the 1820s and 1830s.	A STRUCTURAL NEGATIVE, AND A CERTAIN ONE. Domenico Ventrice was about fifty-eight when he died in January 1815, Anna Fama about fifty, and their son Giuseppe was born about 1809. Civil registration began in Calabria in 1809 and THIS VOLUME BEGINS IN 1811. A couple whose son was born in 1809 married before the register existed. Their marriage is in the PARISH books of Zambrone, which Antenati does not hold — the same wall this archive already met at Pizzo with Pasquale Prostamo. The volume can still be worth reading for their OTHER CHILDREN marrying, because every act and every annual index names both parents.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone, the marriage indexes of 1822 and 1826 done	Read in full. Each year's Tavola carries a «Nomi e cognomi DEI GENITORI» column beside the couple, so one page settles a whole year.	1822 holds six marriages and no Ventrice at all. 1826 holds six, and ONE Ventrice: SERAFINA VENTRICE married VINCENZO SORRENTINO on 9 August 1826, and she is «figlia di FRANCESCO e di CATERINA LA VESSA» — a DIFFERENT Ventrice household. So the surname is at Zambrone in the 1820s, but not our couple's children. Recorded because a second Ventrice family in the same small comune is exactly the trap this archive has been caught by before.
	Antenati — Zambrone, the remaining marriage Tavole 1811-1858 not-yet	About forty-eight annual indexes, one page each, every one naming the parents of both spouses. The volume is bound with each Tavola at the end of its year block; 1822's is at image 13, 1826's at 40, and the 1829-1831 blocks run to image 66.	A bounded job that would find every child of DOMENICO VENTRICE and ANNA FAMA who married at Zambrone, and with them the couple's own names in black and white. Not done.
	Antenati — Zambrone, Nati 1811-1839 not-yet	an_ua37932933. Domenico Ventrice and Anna Fama were still having children about 1809; more may follow.	Unopened. Note that Zambrone's DEATH volume of the same span turned out to be missing 1813-1821 entirely, so this one's coverage must be mapped before any negative from it is believed.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Nati 1828: Giovanna Ventrice found done	an_ua87730 / container wRGRJXQ, 29 images. She was twenty-one in June 1849, so 1827 and 1828 were both mapped; the annual Tavola at images 27-29 named her at once.	BORN 23 JUNE 1828, at nine in the morning, in her parents' own house, and baptised at SAN NICOLA the next day. Act 12 — and a caution for the volume: THE TAVOLA'S «N. D'ORDINE» RUNS ONE BEHIND THE ACT NUMBERS. Its row 11 is act 12. Calibrate on a date before trusting the index's number. The year also holds two more Ventrice births under other parents (Anna Ventrice, of Antonino and Giuseppa Giacco, 26 March), so the surname is common in the town.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico, Morti 1831 and 1839: the year of Giuseppe Ventrice's death done	Opened Briatico Morti 1839 (an_ua87697 / 0noENM9, 14 images) to check the extract against the original, found act 12 of that year to be someone else, re-read the extract, then opened Morti 1831 (an_ua87689 / 0M9zb22, 11 images).	HE DIED IN 1831, NOT 1839 — an error of mine, corrected against the original. Briatico Morti 1839 act 12 is D.a Olimpia La Torre, 14 August, and the year's Tavola agrees; Briatico Morti 1831 act 12 is GIUSEPPE VENTRICE, dead at two in the morning on 21 June 1831 «di anni trenta». Two days before his daughter Giovanna's third birthday. The original also gives the second declarant as ROSARIO ZUNGRI where the 1849 copy has Sergi.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — PIZZO BEGINS IN 1823, and three targets die with that fact done	Tested the register index on localita=Pizzo for 1812, 1814, 1818 and 1822 — all empty — and on 1823, which returns four volumes. The full Pizzo listing carries only the RESTAURAZIONE fondo.	PIZZO HAS NO NAPOLEONIC REGISTERS ON ANTENATI. Its civil records begin in 1823. So DOMENICO PROSTAMO'S BIRTH ACT (Pizzo Nati 1814, atto 285) cannot be opened, and neither can ANTONINO PROSTAMO AND MARIA FRAGALÀ'S MARRIAGE, which must fall before April 1814. Both survive only as the 1849 chancery copies in the Briatico marriage bundle. Together with Antonino's cholera act of 1837 and Domenico Ventrice's Zambrone act of 1815, that is FOUR of this family's deepest documents for which the bundle is the only readable text.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico 1862, and Alfonso Prostamo's birth done	anno=1862 on localita=Briatico.	NOTHING. The comune's registers stop in 1858 and do not resume until 1911, which this archive already knew for marriages and now knows for births. Alfonso Prostamo, born about 1862, has no birth act to open — his age is fixed only by his own marriage papers of 1886 and 1887.
14 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — the complete MAZZA and MELLUSO surname sets done	Ran the registrar's download endpoint with exactTermsFamilynameOnly=true on MAZZA and on MELLUSO, and tested the fathersname/mothersname fields properly.	SEVENTEEN MAZZA REGISTRATIONS IN THE WHOLE INDEX — this archive held six. The eleven new ones are added, among them a MARIO MAZZA born 1900 whose parents are named at last (Rosario Mazza and Rosa Grasso), which turns the unjoined «Mario and Peppina» household into a named family; and an ANGELA MAZZA, born a CRUPI, who is a candidate for the unidentified Angela buried beside Rosario at Nudgee. MELLUSO returns exactly ONE registration in the entire index, so Gregorio Melluso has NO SIBLINGS OR CHILDREN recorded in Queensland. A METHOD CORRECTION WORTH KEEPING: the fathersname and mothersname fields RANK results, they do not FILTER them. Searching a parent's name alone returns an unfiltered hundred rows of strangers; the fields only bite when combined with a subject surname, and even then they only sort. Test them on a known case before believing a result.
14 Sep 2026	Nudgee register against the Queensland index — the Angela beside Rosario done	Matched the Nudgee Catholic cemetery register on interment date against the Queensland death index, for the unnamed Angela in plot V-0116.	IDENTIFIED. Nudgee interred ANGELA MAZZA on 13 January 1973 in V-0116; the Queensland index registers her death on 10 January 1973 and names her parents FRANCESCO CRUPI and MARIA VECCHIO. Plot V-0116 adjoins V-0117, where ROSARIO MAZZA (1899-1986) lies — and adjacent plots at Nudgee have meant a married pair every time this archive has tested it. So Rosario's wife has a maiden name at last. It does NOT settle the 1949 marriage of a Rosario Mazza to Annie Vergina Di Mauro: either that is another Rosario or this one married twice, and nothing found so far decides it.
14 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — my own count of what was new correction	Deduplicated data/qld-bdm.tsv after today's sweep.	I SAID ELEVEN NEW MAZZA REGISTRATIONS AND IT WAS EIGHT. Three of the seven rows I added — Angela Mazza, Josephine Mazza and Andrea Mazza — were already in this file from earlier work, and I wrote them in again. The duplicates are merged and the file is back to twenty-five rows. The seventeen-in-the-index figure stands; my arithmetic on what was new did not.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1876 and 1877: the hunt for Michele Donato's marriage done	His eldest son was born in 1878, so the marriage should fall about 1876-77. Both annual indexes read entire; the one Donato found was opened in full.	STILL NOT FOUND, and one false lead closed. 1876 holds NO Donato on either side of any marriage. 1877 holds exactly one — DONATO CANDELORO, 31, marinaro, marrying ANNA MARIA BOVA on 16 September, act 43 — and the act names his father as the late ANTONINO Donato. Michele's father was DOMENICO Donato, figlio di Candeloro, so by the naming custom a Candeloro Donato marrying in 1877 looked exactly like his elder brother. It is a different household. CANDELORO IS A RECURRING DONATO GIVEN NAME AT SCILLA and cannot be used as a fingerprint. 1874, 1875 and 1878 are mapped with containers and unread.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Morti 1877, 1878, 1879 done	Mariano Mazza was alive in January 1873 and «fu Mariano» by his son's death act of 1924. The M block of each year's alphabetical Indice Annuale read entire: 1877 has eleven M surnames, 1878 nine, 1879 thirteen.	NEGATIVE IN ALL THREE. No Mazza of any given name dies at Piedimonte Etneo in 1877, 1878 or 1879. With 1873, 1875 and 1876 already clear, SIX YEARS of the window are now closed. The Morti series is sequential — ark = an_ua83439 + (year - 1866) — and containers are recorded for 1874, 1877, 1878, 1879 and 1880. The remaining years in the window are 1874 and 1880 onward; 1880's index is 98 images in and its M page was not reached.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1899, atto 62 done	The marriage named in the margin of act 81 of 1870, chased to the act itself.	READ. ARENA DOMENICO, 29, proprietario, son of GIUSEPPE ARENA and the late SERAFINA VITA, married ARENA MARIA, 30, daughter of the late ORAZIO ARENA and GIOVANNA ZIRILLI, on 30 November 1899. It joins two Arena households this archive held separately, and dates four people: Orazio and Serafina dead, Giuseppe and Giovanna living.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Morti 1880: a Mazza, but not Mariano done	The M block of the 1880 alphabetical death index, read entire — eleven surnames.	MARIANO IS NOT THERE, so 1880 joins 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879 as a closed year — SEVEN of the window. But the block does hold «MAZZA GAETANO — 122», the first Mazza death this archive has located in the Piedimonte death series. THE ACT IS NOT YET READ: the volume's openings run in odd pairs (images 59-61 are a triple shot of acts 121 and 123, 62-63 a double shot of 125 and 127), so act 122 is not where the arithmetic puts it and the numbering needs calibrating on a date first.
	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Morti 1874, the M block not-yet	The 1874 index sits at images 85-86 of an_ua83447 (container LDmQZDN).	Image 86 begins at P, so the M block is on 85 — and much of 85 is covered by an archival conservation card in the photograph. It may need the duplicate copy, if one exists, or a different crop.
	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Morti 1880, atto 122 not-yet	Mazza Gaetano. The index gives the number; the act would give the age and the parents.	ATTEMPTED AND BLOCKED. Parte I of the volume was sampled at images 56, 57, 58, 59-61, 62-63, 64, 70 and 80, and every opening shows two NON-CONSECUTIVE act numbers while consecutive openings step by four. Acts 114, 115, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128 and 130 never appear; several openings are re-shot two and three times. Parte II begins at image 90 and restarts its numbering. So act 122 is indexed but not filmed — it would need the second original at Catania, or a page this digitisation skipped.
14 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1874 and 1875 done	Both annual indexes opened, continuing the search for Michele Donato's marriage.	1874 HOLDS A SECOND DONATO CANDELORO — act 62, marrying ROMANO DOMENICA — three years before the Candeloro Donato of act 43 of 1877. The act was not reached: the 1874 volume's acts run two pages each, so the 1877 arithmetic does not transfer and the numbering needs calibrating on a date. Until it is read, whether Scilla held one Candeloro Donato who remarried or two of marrying age at once is open — and the second reading would be the strongest warning yet against identifying anyone by that name. 1875 CANNOT BE SWEPT AT ALL: its annual index is an unused printed form, carrying the archive's own PAGINE BIANCHE card. Michele Donato's marriage remains unfound; 1878 is the last year of the likely window still unread.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1874, atto 62: Michele Donato's brother done	Calibrated the 1874 volume by reading the margin boxes: act 61 on image 32's left page, act 63 on image 33's left, so act 62 is the lower half of image 32's right page. The year closes at act 65.	FOUND. CANDELORO DONATO, 27, marinaro, celibe, «FIGLIO DI DOMENICO, MARINARO, E DI NUNZIATA SOFI, FILATRICE», married DOMENICA ROMANO, 21, filatrice, on 11 December 1874. The first document to show the Donato household whole, and BOTH PARENTS WERE ALIVE. Born about 1847, so he is the elder brother of Michele (born 3 October 1855) — which tightens the hunt for Domenico and Nunziata's own marriage to 1847 OR EARLIER. 1838-41, 1843 and 1847 are already negative; 1842, 1844, 1845 and 1846 are the years left. AND IT SETTLES THE WARNING RAISED YESTERDAY: the Candeloro Donato who married Anna Maria Bova in 1877 is the son of the late ANTONINO and Angela De Franco. Scilla held TWO Candeloro Donatos of marrying age at once.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1846, read entire done	Candeloro Donato was born about 1847, so his parents married in 1847 or earlier; 1838-41, 1843 and 1847 were already negative, leaving 1842, 1844, 1845 and 1846. Correct arks found for all four — the ones in data/scilla-arks.tsv lead to notificazioni volumes and are wrong.	1846 IS A COMPLETE NEGATIVE. All thirty-two acts read, one to an image: no Donato groom and no Sofi bride in any of them. Every bride is listed in scilla-reads so the year need never be opened again. THREE YEARS LEFT in the window — 1842, 1844 and 1845 — and they must be read act by act, because the Bourbon volumes carry no annual index where the Italian-era ones from 1866 do.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1845, read entire done	Thirty-two acts, one to an image, read for both spouses and their parents.	NEGATIVE FOR THE TARGET — no Domenico Donato, no Nunziata Sofi. Two of the four years in the window are now closed, 1845 and 1846; 1842 and 1844 remain. BUT THE YEAR HOLDS A DONATO WORTH KEEPING: act 31, August 1845, MICHELE DONATO, 31, BORN AT MESSINA, marinaro, living at Villa, «FIGLIO DI CANDELORO DONATO, marinaro, e di [—] PALADINO», marrying Angela de Amico. Recorded as a LEAD and explicitly not a join — the mother is a Paladino and this archive has no mother for Domenico; the man was born at Messina; and Scilla is proven to have held two unrelated Candeloro Donatos at once. It does establish that a Candeloro Donato was ALIVE in August 1845, the act saying «figlio di» and not «del fu».
15 Sep 2026	The parent-link grades, and two that had to be taken back done	Graded the parent edges this archive has actually read, so the blood-relatives chart can draw a register-backed parent differently from one the tree asserts. data/parent-links.tsv now carries twenty-six rows.	THIRTEEN EDGES GRADED READ AND TWO INDEX, out of about seven hundred and fifty. AND A WARNING BOUGHT THE HARD WAY: the mechanism can also ADD an edge the tree never had, and BOTH of the first two attempts to use it were WRONG. Piedimonte's Nati 1845 atto 64 names MARIANO MAZZA as Rosario's father — but the only Mariano Mazza in the export is a twentieth-century man, son of the Orazio born 1883, who cannot have fathered a boy in 1845. Nati 1843 atto 101 names ANNA CAVALLARO as Leonarda Bonanno's mother — but the only Anna Cavallaro in the export is the daughter of a Luciano Cavallaro BORN IN 1945. Both rows were written, both were caught by opening the record rather than trusting the slug, and both were removed. THE DOCUMENTED PARENTS ARE SIMPLY NOT IN THE EXPORT, and a name that matches is not a person that matches — the same lesson the two Candeloro Donatos of Scilla taught in the registers.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1844: the index exists after all done	Opened the tail of an_ua2002588 expecting no index, on yesterday's reading of 1845 and 1846.	A CORRECTION OF MY OWN NOTE. 1844 DOES carry a «TAVOLA annuale alfabetica de' Matrimonj» at images 52-56, ruled for the spouses, their patria and professione, THEIR PARENTS, and the day of the church celebration — where 1845 and 1846 carry none at all. So the Bourbon run is not uniform and yesterday's flat claim was wrong. The table is marked INCHIOSTRO SBIADITO and GRINZE by the Archivio itself and needs the contrast stretched to read. Entries 23 to 32 are read and hold NO DONATO; the rest of the year is outstanding, and because the Tavola gives both parents of both spouses, finishing it would settle 1844 in a handful of images rather than thirty.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1844: DOMENICO DONATO AND NUNZIATA SOFI, FOUND done	The 1844 annual Tavola is alphabetical by the groom's surname with the bride beneath him, so the D block was reachable directly once the table was found at images 48-56.	ENTRY 17. «DONATO DOMENICO \| Scilla \| MARINARO \| CANDELORO e PALADINO MARIA \| Luglio» and beneath «SOFI NUNZIATA \| id. \| FILATRICE \| PASQUALE e DE AMICO MARIA \| 20». THE MARRIAGE THIS ARCHIVE HAS HUNTED THROUGH ELEVEN YEARS OF REGISTERS — 1838-41, 1843, 1845, 1846 and 1847 all read and all negative, and 1844 the year between them nobody had opened. Four new people: MARIA PALADINO, who is Candeloro Donato's wife and the first name this archive has had for her, and PASQUALE SOFI and MARIA DE AMICO. IT ALSO CONFIRMS YESTERDAY'S LEAD: the Michele Donato of act 31 of 1845, born at Messina, «figlio di Candeloro Donato e di [—] PALADINO», is Domenico's BROTHER. THE ACT ITSELF CANNOT BE READ — it is 23 or 24 of the year, the Archivio's cards say INCHIOSTRO SBIADITO and GRINZE, and the ink has gone. The Tavola is legible where the act is not.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Archivio di Stato di Messina, whole province wall	Does civil registration at Messina reach back to Michele Donato's birth about 1814, and to his parents' marriage before it? Year-by-year probes of the province: 1815, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1825, 1840.	NO, AND THE WALL IS EXACT. 1815 returns nothing. 1819 returns nothing. 1820 returns 366 volumes across seventeen comuni, 1821 more, 1840 five hundred and ten. CIVIL REGISTRATION IN THE PROVINCE OF MESSINA BEGINS IN 1820 — six years after Michele Donato was born there, and later still than his parents' marriage. Sicily had no Napoleonic period, so it has no «Stato civile napoleonico»: the series starts with the restoration, and starts late. So CANDELORO DONATO IS WHERE THE SCILLA LINE STOPS in the civil registers, exactly as Pasquale Prostamo is where the Calabrian one does. Anything earlier is a PARISH record, in the Archdiocese of Messina, and not on Antenati. AND A SECOND WALL BEHIND THE FIRST: the comune of MESSINA ITSELF appears in none of the years read — not 1820, not 1840 — although the archive's series list claims 1069 volumes for it. Messina city was destroyed by the earthquake of 28 December 1908, which killed some eighty thousand people and took much of its civil archive with it. That is to be confirmed rather than assumed, but it means the city is the worst-served comune in its own province and the Donato birth may be unreachable by any route.
15 Sep 2026	Brisbane City Council cemeteries — the whole register, by API done	All nine Council cemeteries and crematoria — Mount Gravatt, Toowong, Pinnaroo Lawn, Balmoral, Hemmant, Lutwyche, South Brisbane and the rest, 360,000 records. Searched: Mazza, Prostamo, Polistena, Arena, Donato, Melluso, Nicotra, Crupi, Cavallaro.	THE ENDPOINT, WHICH IS THE USEFUL PART: Council's search moved to «EverAfter», and behind it is clean JSON needing no login — GET https://brisbane.discovereverafter.com/api/deceased-search?name=SURNAME&country=&facility_id=&order_by=relevance&sort=desc . It returns forename, middlename, surname, date of birth, date of death, age, date of burial or cremation, and the cemetery. The match is FUZZY -- a search for Mazza returns Mazzaracca, Mazzaglia and Mazzaroli -- so filter on the surname yourself. FOUR NAMES RETURN NOTHING AT ALL across every Council cemetery: POLISTENA, MELLUSO, NICOTRA and CRUPI. That is not a failure, it is the shape of the family: they were Catholic and they are at NUDGEE, which the Archdiocese runs and Council does not list. WHAT IT CORRECTED: Domenico Francesco Prostamo's birth, recorded here as 1931, is 18 OCTOBER 1930 in Council's own record -- which agrees with the family tree and makes him ninety-four when he died in January 2025, not ninety-three. WHAT IT ADDED, AS LEADS AND NOT JOINS: MARIO MAZZA (1921-2015) and MARIA MAZZA (1931-2014) share plot Mon 3H 104 at Mount Gravatt, which in these registers means a married pair -- and neither is in Michael's export. AND AT PINNAROO LAWN, A DONATO FAMILY CARRYING THIS LINE'S TWO RAREST NAMES: «Gregory CANDELORO Donato» (1941-2025), «Donato CENDELORD» (d. 1968 at 52), «Donato ANNUNZIATO» (d. 1954 at 66), with a Rocco and a Concetta beside them. Candeloro is the name of the Scilla grandfather born about 1783 and of his grandson born 1847; Annunziata is Nunziata Sofi's. THE EXPORT CONTAINS NO CANDELORO AT ALL. This is exactly the shape of a join this archive has got wrong four times, so it is written down as a lead and nothing more. The Queensland death index names parents and would settle both.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — the Briatico processetti, mapped as a series done	Which years exist, which comuni they cover, and how they are arranged. Probed 1820, 1822, 1824, 1826, 1828, 1830, 1840, 1845, 1850.	THEY EXIST FOR MOST YEARS, AND THE SERIES IS NOT ONE COMUNE. Briatico returns TWO OR THREE separate processetti arks for the same year, and they are DIFFERENT COMUNI in the same circondario -- 1826 gives Briatico (an_ua37920142, 59 images) and SCICONI (an_ua37929531, 52 images); 1828 gives three plus a CONIDONI bundle covering 1828-1851 (an_ua37920221, 318 images). Read the manifest label before assuming which town a bundle belongs to. Years found: 1824 (an_ua37920082, 107 images), 1826, 1828, 1830, 1840, 1845, 1850. NOT 1820 and NOT 1822. AND THEY ARE ARRANGED DIFFERENTLY FROM SCILLA'S, which matters for what a search costs. Scilla's bundles are PER-MARRIAGE FASCICOLI, each opening with a cover sheet that names both spouses and indexes its own contents -- so the right file is found by reading covers. BRIATICO'S 1826 BUNDLE HAS NO COVER SHEETS AT ALL: it is a continuous run of loose notificazioni and certificates, «PARTE II», with the spouses' names in the body of each. SO THE ROUTE IN IS THE MARRIAGE REGISTER FIRST. Get the act number from the Briatico Matrimoni volume, then find the corresponding papers. Reading the bundle cold means reading every page. The target that prompted this: GIUSEPPE VENTRICE x CATERINA CICHELLO, married before mid-1827 -- their daughter Giovanna was born 23 June 1828. Their bundle would carry Giuseppe's own birth act (about 1795), Caterina Cichello's, HER PARENTS, and very possibly the death of PAOLO VENTRICE, which would reach a generation this archive has only as a name. NOT YET FOUND.
15 Sep 2026	FamilySearch — UNBLOCKED after five days, and what it actually holds done	Retried after the site-wide Error 15 that named the proxy IP and blocked it from the day this archive was built. Searched Prostamo, Francesco Prostamo and Rosario Mazza.	IT WORKS, AND IT NEEDS NO LOGIN. The index returns names, exact dates, places AND BOTH PARENTS on the results page itself. The surname match is fuzzy -- «Prostamo» returns Prada, Pretta, Pretto and Preiti -- so add `q.surname.exact=on`, which cuts 1,335 results to 26. THE COLLECTION THAT MATTERS FOR THE CALABRIAN LINE: «Italy, Vibo Valentia, Vibo Valentia, Civil Registration (TRIBUNALE), 1861-1910» -- the COURT copy, which runs to 1910 where Antenati's comune copies stop at 1900. BUT NOT FOR BRIATICO. Twenty-six exact Prostamo births 1896-1912 are indexed and every one of them is MILETO, COMPARNI, SAN GIOVANNI or PIZZO. Not one is Briatico. FRANCESSCO PROSTAMO, BORN 16 NOVEMBER 1900 AT BRIATICO, IS NOT IN THE INDEX -- so Briatico's 1900-1910 volumes are either unindexed browse-only images here or absent, and that hope, which has sat in the queue since 10 September, is not a quick one after all. PIZZO IS INDEXED, which is worth knowing given the Prostamo are a Pizzo family: Giorgio Prostamo d. 1903 and Anna Prostamo d. 1899, both of Antonino/Antonio and Angela Conde. Too late for the spine but the same town. AND ONE THING THAT REFINES TODAY'S MESSINA FINDING. FamilySearch carries «Italy, MESSINA, Civil Registration (STATE ARCHIVE), 1820-1865». That CONFIRMS INDEPENDENTLY that Sicilian registration begins in 1820 -- and it softens the second wall: Messina's records for 1820-65 SURVIVE and are filmed, even though the comune of Messina appeared in no Antenati year probed. The earthquake of 1908 did not take everything. It does NOT move the first wall: Michele Donato was born about 1814, still six years early.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico marriages 1822 to 1827, read complete done	GIUSEPPE VENTRICE x CATERINA CICHELLO, whose daughter Giovanna was born 23 June 1828, so the marriage must precede it. Six whole years read from the annual Tavole: 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827.	NEGATIVE, AND FIRM. TWENTY-FOUR MARRIAGES IN SIX YEARS AND NOT ONE VENTRICE. 1822 had five. 1823 had five, 1824 four, 1825 four or five, 1826 five, AND 1827 HAD NONE AT ALL -- its Tavola is ruled and completely empty. WHERE TO LOOK NEXT, and the negative points at it: Giuseppe Ventrice DIED at Briatico in 1831, but his father DOMENICO VENTRICE died at ZAMBRONE in 1815. The family was a Zambrone family that moved. The marriage is most likely at ZAMBRONE, or earlier than 1823 at Briatico, or Giovanna was not the first child. AND A METHOD FINDING WORTH MORE THAN THE NEGATIVE. BRIATICO'S MARRIAGE VOLUMES ARE TINY AND EVERY ONE CARRIES AN ANNUAL TAVOLA THAT NAMES BOTH SETS OF PARENTS. The volumes run six to thirteen images; the Tavola is the LAST image or the one before it, ruled for «Nomi e cognomi dei Sposi \| PATRIA \| NOMI E COGNOMI DE' GENITORI \| Giorno della celebrazione». So a whole year of Briatico marriages, with four parents for every couple, costs ONE IMAGE. The series runs 1816 to 1858 and the arks are sequential -- ark(Y) = an_ua87654 + (Y - 1840), which is CONFIRMED BACKWARDS as well: 1824 is an_ua87638, 1827 is an_ua87641. The entire Briatico marriage series could be swept for about forty images. Nothing else in this archive is that cheap. AND THE TAVOLA CONVENTION STARTS SOMEWHERE AROUND 1822: the volumes for 1816 and 1817 end on ACTS, not an index, so those years must be read act by act. The remaining window for this marriage is therefore 1816-1821 at Briatico -- about seventy images, all downloadable, none indexed -- or Zambrone. Containers found: 1816 5VKDrmE, 1817 5dZbKXn, 1818 wRGR73a, 1819 Lydrvn1, 1820 wlGnjVD, 1821 w68pynN, 1822 wbrz4Vg, 1823 w99lEay, 1824 wXrR28W, 1825 LNjzb4J, 1826 0JbOyEd, 1827 0A4Xgj9.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — the Zambrone marriage book, first fifty images (1811-1830) part	GIUSEPPE VENTRICE x CATERINA CICHELLO, after Briatico 1822-27 came back negative. Zambrone Matrimoni 1811-1858, an_ua37928578, container wWyoZJ2, 253 images. Annual Tavole read complete for 1822, 1824 and 1826; the acts of the other years not yet read.	NOT FOUND YET, BUT THE FAMILY IS THERE, WHICH IS WHAT THE BRIATICO NEGATIVE PREDICTED. TAVOLE READ COMPLETE: 1822 (five marriages -- Scarpato x Sambiase, Coglia x Adamo, Pungitori x Pietrapaolo, Trillo x Colica, Trillo x Ferraro) and 1824 (three -- Piatto x Viggo, Trillo x Pellegrino, Sorrentino x Colica). NO VENTRICE IN EITHER. AND A VENTRICE AT LAST, in the Tavola at image 40: «VINCENZO SORRENTINO x SERAFINA VENTRICE», celebrated a 9 Agosto. HER FATHER READS AS FRANCESCO -- so a different branch from Domenico Ventrice's, and not the couple wanted. THE YEAR IS NOW SETTLED: 1826. Each year in this volume ends on UNUSED BLANK PRINTED FORMS before its Tavola -- image 34 is a blank 1825 form, image 39 a blank 1826 form -- and the Tavola at image 40 follows the 1826 blanks. So SORRENTINO x SERAFINA VENTRICE WERE MARRIED AT ZAMBRONE ON 9 AUGUST 1826, and 1826's three marriages hold no Giuseppe Ventrice. ONE CAUTION REMAINS: the parents' column is cramped and faded, so FRANCESCO -- which would make Serafina a different branch from Domenico Ventrice's -- is a reading and not a certainty. An act of 23 January 1830 at image 50 also names a Vincenzo Sorrentino «sposo di Serafina Ventrice», which may be the same couple's civil promise or may be a second entry -- unresolved. STRUCTURE, which makes the rest cheap: each year is a printed title page, then acts one to an opening, then an annual TAVOLA naming BOTH SETS OF PARENTS. Located so far -- image 13 Tavola 1822, image 18 a BLANK 1823 form, image 27 Tavola 1824, image 28 title 1825, image 35 title 1826, image 40 a Tavola, image 48 a Tavola, image 49 title 1830. SO FOUR YEARS ARE NOW CLEAR -- 1822, 1824, 1826 at Zambrone, on top of Briatico 1822-1827 -- AND THE WINDOW IS 1811-1821, 1823, 1825 AND 1827. Giuseppe Ventrice was born about 1795, so 1818-1825 is where to look first. All fifty images are downloaded.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone Matrimoni 1824, atto 2. FOUND. done	GIUSEPPE VENTRICE x CATERINA CICHELLO, hunted across Briatico 1822-1827 and Zambrone 1822-1826 before this.	FOUND, ON 2 MARCH 1824 AT ZAMBRONE, and it was three images from where the sweep had already reached. The reason it took so long is worth recording: THE TAVOLE IN THIS VOLUME LEAVE THEIR YEAR BLANK. The printed header reads «nell'anno ___» and nobody filled it in, so the year has to be deduced from position -- and I deduced it wrong, calling the Tavola at image 27 «1824» when its three couples are the acts of 1823. Reading the ACTS, which carry «L'Anno mille ottocentoventiquattro» in print, settled it in one look. RULE: IN THIS SERIES, TRUST THE ACTS FOR THE YEAR AND THE TAVOLA ONLY FOR THE NAMES. What the act gives is on the plate and in the corrections: Caterina Cichello's parents FRANCESCO CICHELLO and VITTORIA MOLLO, a couple entirely new to this archive; Giuseppe's birthplace S. COSTANTINO; all four parents already dead by 1824; and a direct contradiction of the 1849 chancery copy over whether Domenico Ventrice's wife was ANNA FAMA or ANNA MAROPOLI.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone Morti 1811-1839, opened. THE GAP IS REAL AND NOW EXACT. done	Whether Zambrone's deaths really are missing 1813-1821 — a wall this archive has published for days without ever opening the volume. Zambrone Morti 1811-1839, an_ua37932358, container w9dp62r, 234 images.	THE WALL IS REAL, AND IT IS NOT AN INFERENCE ANY MORE. The volume runs 1811 (images 1-24), then 1812, which ENDS WITH ITS OWN DEATH TAVOLA at images 37-38, then a printed title page at image 39 — AND THEN IMAGE 40 IS 1822. Acts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 of 1822 run from image 40 to image 45. SO THE REGISTER JUMPS FROM THE END OF 1812 STRAIGHT TO 1822 AND THE YEARS 1813 TO 1821 ARE PHYSICALLY ABSENT. Nine years, and this archive had them right. WHAT THAT COSTS: DOMENICO VENTRICE DIED 13 JANUARY 1815, squarely inside the gap. His original death act is NOT in this volume, so the ANNA FAMA against ANNA MAROPOLI question CANNOT be settled from Zambrone's own register. BUT THE SURNAME IS CORROBORATED ANYWAY, and from an unexpected direction: the 1822 death Tavola names a «fu Franc.co e Dom.ca MAROPOLI» as the parents of a Francesca Pungitori. MAROPOLI IS A REAL ZAMBRONE SURNAME OF EXACTLY THIS PERIOD, which is what a reading of «della fu Anna Maropoli» needed and did not have. It does not prove the 1849 copy wrong; it removes the objection that the name looked invented. AND THE VOLUME IS CHEAP TO SWEEP: EVERY YEAR ENDS WITH AN ANNUAL TAVOLA ruled for «Nomi e Cognomi dei Morti \| Patria \| Professione \| NOMI E COGNOMI DE' GENITORI \| Giorno della Morte». 1812's is at image 37, 1822's at image 51. One image a year, with the parents of every person who died. 1822 READ COMPLETE: seven deaths, and NEITHER Francesco Cichello NOR Vittoria Mollo is among them — though a MARIA Mollo died on 27 May 1822.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Zambrone death Tavole 1822, 1823 and 1824, read complete done	FRANCESCO CICHELLO and VITTORIA MOLLO, both already dead when their daughter married on 2 March 1824 — so their deaths fall somewhere before that. And ANNA MAROPOLI, Giuseppe Ventrice's mother, also «la fu» by 1824. Zambrone Morti 1811-1839: Tavola 1822 at image 51, 1823 at image 65, 1824 at image 78.	NEGATIVE FOR ALL THREE, AND THE NEGATIVE POINTS SOMEWHERE USEFUL. The three annual death Tavole name everyone who died at Zambrone in 1822, 1823 and 1824, WITH THEIR PARENTS -- and NEITHER FRANCESCO CICHELLO NOR VITTORIA MOLLO IS AMONG THEM. Nor is Anna Maropoli. SO ALL THREE ALMOST CERTAINLY DIED IN THE NINE MISSING YEARS, 1813-1821 -- the same gap that hides Domenico Ventrice's act of January 1815. Four people this archive wants, behind one gap. That makes the SECOND COPY of the register (work list row 59) the single most valuable lead left on the Calabrian side. WHAT THE SWEEP DID SETTLE: MAROPOLI IS UNMISTAKABLY A ZAMBRONE SURNAME. It appears TWICE more in these three years -- «fu Franc.co e Dom.ca MAROPOLI» as parents in the 1822 Tavola, and GIUSEPPE MAROPOLI himself, an infant, dead 23 March 1824, son of Antonio and Marianna Colia. Two independent attestations inside two years. The reading «della fu Anna Maropoli» on the 1824 marriage act no longer needs defending as a reading; what remains open is only which of two documents is right. AND A PLACE WORTH NOTING: the 1824 Tavola's first entry is FRANCESCA CAPIGRELLI OF S. COSTANTINO -- the same S. Costantino where Giuseppe Ventrice was born. Zambrone's register carries S. Costantino people, so the two towns shared a population and the Ventrice move was a short one. MOLLO AND CICHELLO ARE BOTH LOCAL: a Maria Mollo died in 1822, a Marianna Mollo and an Anna Cichello in 1823, a Domenica Mollo appears as a parent in 1824. Neither surname is rare here, which is worth remembering before any join is made on one.
15 Sep 2026	FamilySearch catalogue — attempted, and it was down part	The second copy of Zambrone's civil registers for 1813-1821, the nine years missing from the Antenati volume.	NOT RULED OUT -- NOT CHECKED. FamilySearch's catalogue returned «Something Went Wrong» for every query on 15 September. Its JSON endpoint at /service/search/catalog/search is alive and validates query terms -- `q.title`, `q.subject` and `q.place` are accepted where `q.text`, `q.keyword` and `q.anyPlace` are rejected -- but `q.place=Zambrone` IGNORES the value and returns two million hits, so it is useless without a place ID. RETRY LATER; this is a service outage and not a negative. WHAT THE ATTEMPT DID PRODUCE, by making me check the premise instead: THE VOLUME ANTENATI HOLDS IS THE COURT'S COPY, NOT THE COMUNE'S. Its manifest says «Archivio di Stato di Catanzaro > Stato civile napoleonico > Zambrone > 1811-1839», and under the Napoleonic and Bourbon codes every act was written TWICE -- one register for the comune, one for the tribunale, the tribunale's going to the Archivio di Stato. SO THE NINE YEARS ARE MISSING FROM ONE OF TWO COPIES, and the other may still be at the COMUNE DI ZAMBRONE. That is supported by the act having existed in 1849, when the chancery certified a copy of Domenico Ventrice's 1815 death for a marriage at Briatico -- something was still being copied from, thirty-four years on. It makes the next step a LETTER to the comune rather than another search, and it is the only route to four people: Domenico Ventrice, Anna Maropoli, Francesco Cichello and Vittoria Mollo.
15 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — swept by surname for Donato, Mazza and Crupi part	Testing the two Brisbane leads found in the council cemeteries — the Pinnaroo Donato carrying CANDELORO, and Mario and Maria Mazza of Mount Gravatt — and sweeping the surname sets properly rather than by targeted lookup. The endpoint 403s to curl and must be fetched from the site's own origin in the browser.	THREE RESULTS, AND ONE OF THEM IS A FAMILY NOBODY HERE KNEW ABOUT. CRUPI -- ANGELA CRUPI HAD AT LEAST THREE BROTHERS IN QUEENSLAND. Her own death registration of 1973 names FRANCESCO CRUPI and MARIA VECCHIO. So do THREE MORE: PIETRO CRUPI (d. 18 July 1961), ANTONINO CRUPI (d. 15 April 1982) and MARIO CRUPI (d. 17 September 1989). Four siblings, one parent-pair, and this archive knew one of them. Two of the brothers also have Queensland marriages in 1940. DONATO -- THE PINNAROO FAMILY IS FULLY DOCUMENTED AND IS NOT DEMONSTRABLY OURS. ANNUNZIATO DONATO and CONCETTA BRIGANTI had five children registered in Queensland: Rocco 1912, Concetto 1913, Peppino 1914, CANDELORO 1915 and Nunzio 1917, and the deaths of four of them repeat the same parents. AND ANNUNZIATO'S OWN DEATH OF 28 FEBRUARY 1954 NAMES HIS PARENTS: ROCCO DONATO and CONCETTA ROMANO. NOT Michele Donato and Maria Sofi. So the Candeloro at Pinnaroo is a grandson of a ROCCO Donato, not of this archive's line. THE NAMES REMAIN SUGGESTIVE AND THAT IS ALL THEY ARE: Candeloro, Annunziato, Rocco, Nunzio and Concetto are precisely the Scilla Donato naming pool, and CONCETTA ROMANO carries a surname this archive has already met at Scilla in Giovanni Polistena's mother. A cousin line is plausible. A DOCUMENTED LINK IS ABSENT, and this is exactly the join this archive has got wrong four times. MAZZA -- THE MOUNT GRAVATT PAIR CANNOT BE TESTED HERE AT ALL. Queensland's public death index stops at 1996 and MARIO MAZZA DIED IN 2015, MARIA MAZZA IN 2014. The Mario Mazza who appears in the index died in 1986 and is a different man, son of Rosario Mazza and Rosa Grasso. The lead is neither confirmed nor refuted; it is out of the index's reach. The sweep also re-confirmed five registrations this archive already held -- Maria Nicotra 1963, Mary Rosa Mazza 1968, Rosario Mazza 1986, Michele Mazza 1926 and Angela Crupi 1973 -- with the same parents each time.
15 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — the rest of the surnames swept done	Prostamo, Polistena, Melluso, Nicotra, Anile, Barbuto and Arena, by exact surname, births marriages and deaths.	MOSTLY EMPTY, AND THE EMPTINESS IS INFORMATIVE. POLISTENA RETURNS NOTHING AT ALL, and so does ANILE. That is not a gap in the family, it is the shape of the index: births stop in 1926, marriages in 1951, deaths in 1996, and the Polistena reached Brisbane in 1949. They arrived too late to be born or married into it and have mostly died too late to be in it. PROSTAMO RETURNS EXACTLY ONE RECORD in the entire Queensland index -- Maria Assunta, 1991 -- for a family with a dozen people in Brisbane. Same reason. ARENA RETURNS SEVENTY-FIVE AND NONE OF THEM IS OURS: Byrne, Kerby, Pollard, Timothy Leo, Cornelius Joseph, Alphonso James -- an IRISH-AUSTRALIAN Arena family entirely unrelated to Scilla. A surname sweep without a parent check would have produced a dozen false joins here. NICOTRA returns eighteen, of which ONE is ours -- Maria Nicotra, 1963, already held. The rest are a Catania Nicotra cluster around Maccarone, Patane and Scalia. BARBUTO returns two, neither ours. AND A CORRECTION TO MY OWN EXPECTATION: the Melluso and Prostamo registrations I treated as finds were ALREADY IN data/qld-bdm.tsv, recorded by an earlier session with better analysis than mine -- including that LIMARDO is a Potenzoni surname from the 1818 birth index. What was actually missing was that GENNARO MELLUSO, MARIA LIMARDO and CARMELA MARIA BORELLO had never become PEOPLE. They are now. The lesson is about this archive, not about Queensland: facts recorded in one file do not reach the reader until they are surfaced in another.
15 Sep 2026	FamilySearch — Australian records for Prostamo part	Looking for AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL ROLLS, promoted to the primary instrument after Queensland BDM proved unable to see a family that arrived in 1949.	NO ELECTORAL ROLLS THERE. FamilySearch's Australian holdings for this surname are Petty Sessions registers, Find a Grave and nothing else -- the rolls are on Ancestry, which is paid, and at the National Library. So row 62 still needs a source and this was not it. TWO THINGS THE SEARCH DID GIVE. FIRST, A PLACE AND A DATE FOR ROCCO PROSTAMO. «Australia, Victoria, Petty Sessions Registers, 1858-1985» indexes a PROSTAMO at NORTHCOTE between November 1956 and June 1957, and at HEIDELBERG between December 1957 and June 1958 -- both Melbourne. The index garbles the given name as «Ricco» and «Rono», which is this data's usual treatment of ROCCO. It fits: Rocco Prostamo, born 28 January 1925, is buried at NORTHERN MEMORIAL PARK, GLENROY, in the same city. WHAT THE ENTRIES CONCERN IS NOT STATED IN THE INDEX AND HAS NOT BEEN READ -- petty sessions covered licences, debts, permits and minor matters alike -- so this is recorded as a PLACE AND A DATE and nothing more. It should not be characterised further without reading the register itself. SECOND, A CAUTION ABOUT FIND A GRAVE. It indexes FRANCESCA PROSTAMO, born 18 September 1933 and died 11 February 2018, at TWO DIFFERENT CEMETERIES ON TWO CONTINENTS -- «Northern Memorial Park, Glenroy, Victoria» and «Northern Cemetery, Barnesville, Belmont County, OHIO». Same dates, same name, one person. The two cemeteries share the word NORTHERN and that is almost certainly the whole explanation. This archive uses the Victorian one, because she landed at Fremantle in 1957 and Rocco is buried in the same Melbourne ground. A Find a Grave hit is not a burial until the cemetery agrees.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — San Costantino Calabro, mapped for the first time part	The town named in Giuseppe Ventrice's marriage act of 1824 as his birthplace — «nato in S. Costantino» — and never once queried by this archive.	IT EXISTS, IT IS LARGE, AND IT REACHES BACK FURTHER THAN ZAMBRONE'S SURVIVING DEATHS. 205 volumes, 1810 to 1912, including NATI 1812-1824 and 1813-1860, MORTI 1813-1827, 1828-1837 and 1838-1849, MATRIMONI 1813-1832, and FORTY-EIGHT volumes of MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI. WHY THIS MATTERS MORE THAN A NEW TOWN USUALLY WOULD: ZAMBRONE'S DEATH REGISTER IS MISSING 1813-1821, and four people this archive wants died inside that gap. SAN COSTANTINO'S MORTI 1813-1827 COVERS EXACTLY THOSE YEARS. If ANNA MAROPOLI -- Giuseppe Ventrice's mother, «la fu» by March 1824 -- died in her husband's own town rather than at Zambrone, HER ACT SURVIVES. The gap may be walkable round rather than through. GIUSEPPE'S OWN BIRTH IS STILL OUT OF REACH: he was about 1790 and the registers begin in 1810. AND THE USUAL TRAP, MET AGAIN: the volume labelled «San Costantino 1813-1827» (an_ua37932372, container wRDnEp4, 325 images) IS NOT ONE COMUNE. Image 12 is San Costantino; images 24 and 40 are FRANCICA. Read the comune line on every act, not the series label. NOT YET SWEPT -- 325 mixed images, and the year structure has not been mapped.
15 Sep 2026	Antenati — Pizzo, the whole series listed part	Everything Antenati holds for Pizzo, to see what is reachable above and around the Prostamo wall.	751 VOLUMES, AND THE WALL IS CONFIRMED FROM THE SERIES ITSELF: the earliest is 1823, exactly as this archive has said. WHAT IS REACHABLE: Nati from 1823, Morti from 1823, Matrimoni 1823-1829, and THIRTY-FOUR VOLUMES OF MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI. MARIA FRAGALA was alive at Pizzo in June 1849 and is the one person on this line whose death falls INSIDE the surviving run. ANTONINO PROSTAMO x MARIA FRAGALA married about 1810-13 -- their son was born April 1814 -- which is ten years before the register starts, so the marriage is pre-civil like the rest. The 1837 cholera register remains the exception: indexed to act 325 and not digitised.
15 Sep 2026	Brisbane cemeteries — the three Crupi brothers, both registers done	PIETRO (d. 1961), ANTONINO (d. 1982) and MARIO CRUPI (d. 1989), found today in the Queensland death index as brothers of Angela Crupi. Searched Brisbane City Council's nine cemeteries and the Catholic Archdiocese's nine, including wildcard variants Crup%, Crupi% and Cruppi.	NOT IN EITHER REGISTER. Council returns ZERO Crupi across all nine of its cemeteries and crematoria. The Catholic register returns EXACTLY ONE, and it is none of them: VENERO CRUPI, born 14 October 1935, died 4 December 2023, interred at NUDGEE on 13 December 2023, plot LA-3299. SO THE THREE BROTHERS ARE BURIED SOMEWHERE NEITHER REGISTER COVERS -- outside Brisbane, or cremated privately, or in a ground held by neither the council nor the Archdiocese. Their death registrations carry no C country code, so they died in the Brisbane district, which makes the absence odder rather than less. VENERO CRUPI IS A LEAD AND IS LEFT AS ONE. Venero is a Catania name and Angela Crupi was born at Catania in 1900, so he fits the family's origin exactly -- and fitting an origin is not a descent. He died in December 2023, well within living memory, and the people who could confirm him are alive. This is a question for Michael, not for an index.
16 Sep 2026	Findmypast — Australia Electoral Rolls, the whole Mazza and Prostamo sweep done	Every Mazza and every Prostamo in Findmypast's Australia Electoral Rolls, sorted to bring all Queensland rows onto the first page, with transcripts read for the six that could be this family.	SIX TRANSCRIPTS AND ONE HARD LIMIT. FOUND: SEBASTIANO MAZZA, builder's labourer, Progress Road, WACOL, sub-district Inala, 1959 -- Michael Mazza's grandfather, ten years after landing, in the post-war migrant belt. ROSARIO MAZZA, shopkeeper, and ANGELA MAZZA, home duties, at 225 LEICHHARDT STREET, Brisbane city, 1959, on consecutive roll numbers 1844 and 1845, which is one household; Rosario is Sebastiano's brother and Angela is very probably Angela Cupo. ROSARIO SALVATORE MAZZA, shop assistant, 191 Given Terrace, PADDINGTON, 1949 -- the same man a decade earlier, carrying his father Salvatore's name. ANDREA MAZZA, timber cutter at Cardwell in the TULLY sub-district, where Rosario's daughter Carmela was born in 1926, unidentified and left as a lead. ANTONIO MAZZA, tobacco grower at Yelarbon, recorded to close him off. NOTHING FOR DOMENICA PROSTAMO under either name, and ZERO PROSTAMO in all of Australia. THE LIMIT: Findmypast holds only eight Queensland commonwealth years and the last is 1959, so for a family that arrived in 1949 there is ONE usable roll. The near-annual run this archive was promised is at the NLA and on Ancestry, not here.
16 Sep 2026	NAA — the Ugolino Vivaldi manifest of 1 March 1951, read in full done	All 25 images of NAA K269, item 30133197: the Lloyd Triestino master list of incoming passengers for trip 2/51, and the Department of Immigration's schedule of alien passengers for debarkation at Fremantle. Searched for MAZZA, for PROSTAMO, and for any accompanying child.	IT DISPROVES THE IDENTIFICATION THIS ARCHIVE HAS CARRIED SINCE THE CROSSINGS WERE FIRST WORKED. ONE MAZZA aboard: «MAZZA Domenico», no. 476, Alien, bound for NARRACAN, VICTORIA. NO PROSTAMO aboard under any spelling -- the P sequence runs PRATICO', PREBIANCA, PRELL, POTH, PUGLISI with no gap. NO SECOND MAZZA, and the list names children individually, so a two-year-old Salvatore would have been on it. THE PORT COLUMN IS THE PROOF: unlabelled in the master list, but every -F- passenger appears in the separate Fremantle debarkation schedule and every -M- has a Victorian address, so F is Fremantle and M is Melbourne. MAZZA Domenico is -M- and he is ABSENT from the Fremantle schedule, which runs MARTINELLI straight to MERENDINO. DOMENICA PROSTAMO WAS GOING TO HER HUSBAND IN BRISBANE; this man landed at Melbourne for a Gippsland shire. The candidate is withdrawn and her March 1951 crossing is unknown again. THE INDEX COULD NEVER HAVE SHOWN THIS. It gave a name, a date and a ship; the manifest gave a destination and a port of debarkation, and those are what broke it.
16 Sep 2026	NAA RecordSearch NameSearch — Mazza, Prostamo and the naturalisation files done	NameSearch by family name across all record categories for MAZZA (Sebastiano, Rosario, Domenica), PROSTAMO, and the whole immigration and naturalisation category for MAZZA.	THE BEST SINGLE HOUR OF AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH THIS ARCHIVE HAS HAD. FOUND: NAA J25 1971/1074, «Mazza, Sebastiano; wife Domenica [nee Prostamo]», Brisbane, 1950-1971 -- the naturalisation file the 1959 electoral roll proved must exist, naming both of them and her maiden name. NAA MP1103/1 Q8110, «Prisoner of War/Internee: Mazza, Rosario; Date of birth - 20 February 1899» -- ROSARIO MAZZA WAS INTERNED as an enemy alien, with a Queensland investigation file (BP242/1 Q21227) and a Civil Aliens Corps record (J1737) behind it. NAA A12508 31/1454 -- ANGELA CRUPI ARRIVED AT BRISBANE ON THE VIMINALE ON 7 DECEMBER 1937 with «Maria age 15; Carmela age 8», which gives her birth date as 20 December 1900 and puts this family in Australia a decade before anyone here thought. J25 1970/5500 -- Sebastiano Mazza NOMINATED Mario Napoli, born 1934, and his wife Maria nee Coco. TWO PROSTAMO BROTHERS CORROBORATED with the wives the tree already names: J25 1961/3716 «PROSTAMO, Antonino Giacomo and Angela [nee Tomsic]» and J25 1962/5930 «Prostamo, Domenico Francesco; wife Assunte Maria [nee Melluso]». THE CAUTION: an NAA item title is a FINDING AID, not a record that has been read. It is transcribed from the file and it is reliable, but nothing here has been opened -- all of it is paper, most of it at Brisbane, and J25 1971/1074 is «not yet examined» and needs an access request. AND ONE THING BREAKS: Carmela arrives aged EIGHT as an Italian alien, so she was not born at Tully in 1926.
16 Sep 2026	NAA — Mario Crupi's aliens registration card, read in full done	NAA: D4028, CRUPI MARIO, item 9209611 — digitised, two sides, read. Found by sweeping the NAA name index for CRUPI, POLISTENA and ARENA.	THE MOST DETAILED DOCUMENT THIS ARCHIVE HAS ON ANY AUSTRALIAN MEMBER OF THIS FAMILY, and it is free and digitised. N.B.E. certificate Q30124. MARIO CRUPI, born 28 NOVEMBER 1905 at PIEDIMONTE, PROVINCE OF CATANIA. Cane cutter. Address Bemerside P.O., INGHAM. Entered Australia 13 JUNE 1928, PORT OF DEBARKATION BRISBANE. Five feet eight, brown eyes, black hair, heavy build; SCAR ON LEFT THIGH, WART ON RIGHT SIDE OF FACE. THE REVERSE IS THE PART THAT MATTERS: «18.8.42 LOVEDAY INTERNMENT CAMP. 30/12/43 Released and entrained for Brisbane.» HE WAS INTERNED FOR SIXTEEN MONTHS. THAT IS TWO MEN IN THIS FAMILY INTERNED IN 1942 -- Rosario Mazza on his own dossier, and now his wife's brother. THE STRUCTURAL FINDING IS THE BIRTHPLACE. PIEDIMONTE IS THE MAZZA'S OWN TOWN. Rosario Mazza was born at Piedimonte Etneo in 1899 and married Angela Crupi, born about 1900 in the province of Catania -- and here is her brother, born at Piedimonte Etneo in 1905. THE CRUPI AND THE MAZZA CAME FROM THE SAME VILLAGE, which this archive did not know and which is how these marriages were made. THE IDENTIFICATION IS STRONG AND IS NOT PROVED: the card names no parents. It rests on the surname, the birthplace, the north Queensland cane districts where the Crupi brothers appear on the electoral rolls, and the 1989 Queensland death of a Mario Crupi whose parents are Francesco Crupi and Maria Vecchio.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — every Arena death at Scilla, 1910-1943 done	Antenati's «cerca per nome» index, cognome=Arena, localita=Scilla: 69 indexed persons, of whom 26 are the deceased and the rest appear as the parents and spouses named in those same acts.	THE INSTRUMENT THIS ARCHIVE HAS BEEN WORKING WITHOUT. Antenati NAME-INDEXES Scilla's death acts from about 1910 to 1943, with FATHER, MOTHER AND SPOUSE on each one, and it can be queried directly -- so a death that would have cost a volume list, a container lookup, a manifest fetch and an index read is now one search. THE THREE THAT MATTER. ROCCO ARENA, the New York emigrant, DIED AT SCILLA ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932: «Padre Francesco Antonio, Madre Serafina Arlotta, Coniuge Generosa Costa», all three matching this archive exactly. GIOVANNI ARENA, his brother, DIED AT SCILLA ON 31 MARCH 1936, «Madre Serafina Arlotta, Coniuge Concetta Russo» -- he sailed to join Rocco in 1899 and he came home, which is why he baptised no child in New York. SERAFINA ARENA, born in Manhattan on 15 August 1898, DIED AT SCILLA ON 15 AUGUST 1912. AND A WHOLE HOUSEHOLD FALLS OUT AS A BY-PRODUCT: Orazio Arena and Giovanna Zirilli's children TERESA (d. 1913, wife of Pietro Bova), GIUSEPPE (d. 1922, husband of Fortunata Maria Pontillo), MARIA ANNUNZIATA (d. 1933, wife of Rocco Chirico) and ALESSANDRO ANTONIO (d. 1936, husband of Maria Antonia Lico) -- plus a DOMENICO ARENA (d. 1923) whose mother is MARIANTONIA MUSOLINO, which means Orazio married twice. NOTE WHAT IS ABSENT AND WHAT IT PROVES: FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA and SERAFINA ARLOTTA are named repeatedly as parents but never as the deceased, so they did not die inside 1910-1943. The archive had already read the annual index for 1889-1896 and not found them. THEY DIED BETWEEN 1897 AND 1909 -- row 69 goes from forty-seven unread years to THIRTEEN. ALL TWENTY-SIX WRITTEN OUT, 20 SEPTEMBER, AND THE SUMMARY HAD BEEN HIDING THINGS. This row named eight of the twenty-six deceased and moved on. The answer to a question asked four days later -- whose son was the Filippo Arena of the 1904 act -- was in the other eighteen all along: FILIPPO ARENA, d. 17 March 1915, «Padre Giovanni Arena, Madre Natalina Longordo, Coniuge Clementina Furfari». The full twenty-six are now in scilla-reads, and they resolve the surname into AT LEAST SEVEN SCILLA HOUSEHOLDS. A SELECTIVE RECORD OF A COMPLETE SEARCH COSTS THE SEARCH TWICE. Where a query returns a bounded set, write the set down.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — Donato, Arlotta and Polistena deaths at Scilla done	Antenati's name index, localita=Scilla, for DONATO (11 deceased), ARLOTTA (24) and POLISTENA (25) — each act carrying father, mother and spouse.	FOUR WORK-LIST ROWS ANSWERED FROM ONE INSTRUMENT. ROW 70, CLOSED: MICHELE DONATO died at Scilla on 10 MAY 1936, «Padre Domenico, Madre Nunziata Sofi, Coniuge Maria Sofi». He was the last man on the Donato line whose end was unknown; he was fifty-two on the 1908 New Orleans manifest and lived another twenty-eight years after coming home. ROW 96 AND ROW 41, BOTH CLOSED BY ONE ACT: CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA died 19 OCTOBER 1924, «Padre GIUSEPPE, Madre ANNA PONTILLO, Coniuge GIOVANNA ROMANO». That gives the thinnest quarter TWO NEW ANCESTORS -- and it explains the archive's oldest unresolved conflict. The tree calls Giovanni Polistena's mother «Giovanna Pontillo»; three records already called her ROMANO; here is a fourth, and here is where the Pontillo came from -- IT IS HIS GRANDMOTHER'S SURNAME, one generation up, carried down onto the wrong woman. The tree's «Giuseppi Pontillo» is Camillo Antonio's own father GIUSEPPE POLISTENA. ROW 4, PREDICTION CONFIRMED: the row reasoned from naming custom that Domenico Donato and Nunziata Sofi should have a PASQUALE, for the maternal grandfather Pasquale Sofi. PASQUALE DONATO died 20 APRIL 1937 with both parents named. ROW 39, THREE SIBLINGS FOR SERAFINA ARLOTTA: DOMENICO (d. 14 March 1915), ANNA (d. 16 March 1915) and GIUSEPPE ANTONIO (d. 2 June 1918), all «Padre Giovanni Arlotta, Madre Maria Costa». Domenico and Anna died TWO DAYS APART, which is worth reading the acts for. AND ONE SMALL CORRECTION: Teressa Polistena died 5 JANUARY 1933, not 1934.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — what Scilla actually has indexed, and for which years done	The whole Scilla name index with no surname filter: 13,777 indexed persons. Read the year facet across its full span, then pulled every act for 1880, 1902 and 1909 to see what type they are.	IT IS DEATHS, AND ONLY DEATHS, AND THE ANSWER DEFLATES FOUR ROWS WHILE SHARPENING THEM. Every act in the index, across every year from 1880 to 1943, is an ATTO DI MORTE. There are NO BIRTHS and NO MARRIAGES in it. THE COVERAGE IS 1911 TO 1943, SOLIDLY -- between 279 and 704 indexed persons a year -- with only a SCATTER BEFORE THAT: four persons in 1880, one in 1885, and a handful each in 1902, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1909 and 1910. WHAT THAT COSTS. The marriage of Nunziata Donato and Giovanni Polistena about 1916 is NOT reachable by query and stays a volume read; so is Camillo Antonio Polistena's birth about 1835, and so are the Donato births of 1845-1860. THE HOPE THAT ONE QUERY WOULD ANSWER THEM IS GONE. WHAT IT GAINS. The window it does cover, 1911-1943, is exactly when the Italian relatives of this family's emigrants were dying, which is why it gave up Rocco Arena, his brother Giovanni, Michele Donato and Camillo Antonio Polistena in an afternoon. AND TWO CAUTIONS. «anno=» is the year parameter and it is control-tested -- anno=1880 returns 4, matching the facet exactly, while «estremoRemoto=» is silently ignored and returns all 13,777. AND THE PRE-1911 STRAGGLERS ARE NOT A BACK DOOR INTO THE MISSING VOLUMES: the two acts indexed under 1909 carry document arks an_ud16595370 and an_ud16595649, which fall INSIDE the ark ranges of the 1911 and 1912 volumes. They are 1909 deaths written into later registers, not a 1909 volume that browse cannot see. A NOTE ON SIZE: 13,777 indexed persons is not 13,777 deaths. Each act indexes the deceased plus two or three relatives, so the real figure is nearer a quarter of that.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — every Costa death at Scilla, 1880-1943 done	Antenati's name index, cognome=Costa, localita=Scilla: 76 indexed persons, 18 of them the deceased.	IT CLOSED THE COUSIN QUESTION AND OPENED TWO GENERATIONS. GENEROSA COSTA, Rocco Arena's wife, DIED AT SCILLA ON 6 JUNE 1916 -- «Padre ANTONINO COSTA, Madre ANNA ARLOTTA, Coniuge ROCCO ARENA». She died sixteen years before her husband. HER FATHER'S OWN ACT IS HERE TOO: ANTONIO COSTA, died 1 JUNE 1915, «Padre LORENZO COSTA, Madre GENEROSA POLISTENA» -- TWO NEW ANCESTORS on a line that stopped dead at him, and the reason for his daughter's name, since the first daughter takes the paternal grandmother's. IT ALSO PUTS A POLISTENA INSIDE THE COSTA LINE a generation early. AND THE COUSIN CLAIM IS NOW CERTAIN. Four acts agree: Anna Arlotta's death names her parents as Giovanni Arlotta and Maria Costa, who are Serafina Arlotta's parents; her husband's death names her back; Generosa's own death names that couple as her parents; and the 1888 marriage gave them first. ANNA AND SERAFINA WERE SISTERS, SO ROCCO AND GENEROSA WERE FIRST COUSINS. ANNA DIED ON 16 MARCH 1915 AND ANTONINO ON 1 JUNE, eleven weeks apart, in the same year her brother Domenico died two days after her.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — Sofi and Zirilli at Scilla done	cognome=Sofi (64 indexed persons, 20 of them the deceased) and cognome=Zirilli (10 indexed persons) at Scilla.	TWO NEGATIVES WORTH HAVING AND ONE STRUCTURAL FACT. NO ZIRILLI IS EVER THE DECEASED. All ten Zirilli in the index are mothers named inside somebody else's act, and GIOVANNA ZIRILLI -- Orazio Arena's wife -- appears FIVE TIMES that way: mother of Teresa Arena (d. 1913), Giuseppe Arena (d. 1922), Maria Annunziata Arena (d. 1933), Alessandro Antonio Arena (d. 1936) and a Mariantonia Costa (d. 1919). SHE DIED BEFORE 1911, which is the same reading as Francesco Antonio Arena and Serafina Arlotta. MARIA SOFI'S PARENTS ARE NOT HERE. Row 72 wants them; the index holds four women called Maria Sofi and NOT ONE is named as the wife of a Michele Donato. The one who died on 3 August 1913 carries no relations at all. The row stays open and stays a volume read. AND THE INDEX DOES NOT DEDUPLICATE PEOPLE -- this is the fact to carry forward. Each act generates its own person-record, so «Giovanna Zirilli» is five records and not one woman linked to five acts, and «69 Arena at Scilla» is sixty-nine MENTIONS across acts, not sixty-nine people. Anyone counting heads off this index will count wrong. NOTED IN PASSING: two Domenico Sofi, both «Padre Giorgio, Madre Maria Paladino», dying in 1933 and 1934 -- the same repeated-name pattern this archive reads as a child who died, except both of these reached adulthood, so it wants an act rather than an assumption. MARIA PALADINO is also the name in dispute at row 25, and this is a different family.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — Romano, Russo, Martello, Paladino and Pontillo at Scilla part	cognome=Romano (26 deceased), Russo (12), Martello, Paladino and Pontillo at Scilla. Martello and Paladino both hit the 100-row page cap and were not fully read.	THE ROMANO SWEEP FINISHED A LONG ARGUMENT. GIOVANNA ROMANO DIED AT SCILLA ON 15 JULY 1930 -- «Padre ANNUNZIATO, Madre ANGELA ZIRILLI, Coniuge CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA». Her own act, her own surname, her own parents, her own husband. That is the FIFTH record calling her Romano and the first to give her parents, and it retires the tree's «Giuseppi Pontillo» and «Nunziatta Pontillo» for good. TWO MORE NEW ANCESTORS: ANNUNZIATO ROMANO and ANGELA ZIRILLI. AND A THREAD WORTH PULLING: Orazio Arena's wife was GIOVANNA ZIRILLI and Giovanna Romano's mother was ANGELA ZIRILLI -- two Zirilli women marrying into two of the four quarters, which in a town this size is more likely kinship than coincidence and is not yet evidence of it. NEGATIVE ON THE RUSSO: the only Concetta Russo in the index died on 20 May 1939 as the wife of a DOMENICO ROMANO, so she is not Giovanni Arena's wife. His own 1936 act names Concetta Russo as his spouse, so she either outlived the indexed span or died before 1911. PART, NOT DONE: Martello and Paladino returned the full hundred rows the page allows and will need paging or a given-name filter before either can be called searched.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — which of this family's comuni are indexed at all done	Queried the name index by locality alone for every comune this family touches: Scilla, Pizzo, Piedimonte Etneo, Briatico, Zambrone, San Costantino Calabro, Potenzoni and Catania — reading the act-type and year facets on each.	THE INDEX IS PATCHY BY COMUNE AND BY ACT TYPE, AND ASSUMING OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE COST A WEEK. INDEXED: SCILLA, deaths only, solid 1911-1943 with a scatter back to 1880. PIZZO, BIRTHS only, about 5,900 of them across 1868-1903 -- so «deaths only» was a SCILLA fact and not an Antenati one, and anyone generalising from one comune will guess wrong about the next. CATANIA, deaths, 34,294 from 1911. NOT INDEXED AT ALL, all returning «Nessun risultato trovato»: PIEDIMONTE ETNEO, BRIATICO, ZAMBRONE, SAN COSTANTINO CALABRO and POTENZONI. THAT IS THE WHOLE CALABRIAN SIDE EXCEPT PIZZO AND SCILLA, and the whole Sicilian side except Catania city. The Prostamo, the Melluso, the Anile and the Ventrice cannot be reached this way and stay volume reads. THE PORTAL SAYS SO ITSELF on a nil result: «solo una parte dei registri disponibili e stata completamente indicizzata». TWO NEGATIVES INSIDE THE INDEXED COMUNI: no PROSTAMO among Pizzo's indexed births, which is expected since the family was at Briatico by the 1868-1903 window; and no MAZZA or NICOTRA of this family at Catania. AND A CAUTION ABOUT THE PARAMETER ITSELF: «localita=» does NOT mean «the act was registered here». It matches ANY place attached to the person, birth or death, and apparently the historical province too -- localita=Catania returns people who died at VICOPISANO IN TUSCANY and at Catenanuova. It worked cleanly at Scilla only because the people there were born and died in the same town.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, the pre-1866 death series listed done	The whole Stato civile della restaurazione death series for Scilla, listed in one page load via tipologia=Morti on serie 2002440 with s_size=100.	FIFTY-ONE VOLUMES, 1817 TO 1865, AND TWO ROWS THAT COULD NOT START NOW CAN. The archive held 55 Nati and 54 Matrimoni volumes for this period and NOT ONE Morti volume; the series had simply never been listed. NOTE THE START YEAR -- AND NOTE THAT IT WAS WRONG. This row said the births begin in 1816; SCILLA'S REGISTERS BEGIN IN 1809, in a napoleonic fondo this archive had not then listed. Within the restaurazione fondo alone the births begin in 1816 and the DEATHS BEGIN IN 1817, so either Scilla registered no deaths in its first year or that volume is gone. Anyone reasoning «civil registration begins in 1816» is reasoning SEVEN years wrong for a birth and EIGHT for a death. DOUBLED YEARS: 1846 and 1854 each have two volumes. WHAT IT UNBLOCKS: FILIPPO ARENA and DOMENICA COSTA, both born in the 1790s and both alive when their son married in 1851, so dying most likely in the 1850s to 1870s -- the back half of this run and the front of the post-1866 one, and the only remaining route to a generation above Filippo. And DOMENICO ARLOTTA, the deepest name on the Scilla side, dead before April 1854 and therefore inside this run if he died after 1817. THE SERIES ID IS THE REUSABLE PART: serie 2002440 carries ALL THREE act types for the restaurazione period and is filtered by tipologia, exactly as 16594786 does for the italiano period.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1924, parte I, atto 83, read in full done	The death act of Camillo Antonio Polistena, found from the volume's own INDICE ANNUALE and read at 1800px. Container 5xGkdq3, image 45 of 75.	THE FIRST OF THE FOUR ACTS THE INDEX ONLY SUMMARISED, AND IT CORRECTS THE ARCHIVE BY NINE YEARS. «L'anno millenovecento ventiquattro addi diciannove di Ottobre, a ore otto e minuti quaranta ... e morto POLISTENA CAMILLO ANTONIO, di anni OTTANTA, PESCATORE, residente in questo Comune, nato in Scilla, dal fu GIUSEPPE, e dalla fu PONTILLO ANNA, MARITO DI ROMANO GIOVANNA.» AGED EIGHTY IN OCTOBER 1924 MEANS BORN ABOUT 1844. The archive carried «about 1835», which was inferred from his son's birth rather than read. HE DIED AT FIFTY MINUTES PAST MIDNIGHT at the house in RIONE MONACINA and the act was registered the same morning. THE DECLARANTS ARE BOTH FISHERMEN: Matra Camillo fu Giacomo, sixty-three, and POLISTENA ANTONIO FU LUIGI, twenty-eight -- a Polistena kinsman this archive does not hold. AND ONE WITNESS IS AN ARENA: «ARENA ROCCO FU FILIPPO, di anni trentasei, giornaliero». NOT THE ROCCO ARENA OF THIS FAMILY, who was sixty-three in 1924 and the son of Francesco Antonio -- this is the Rocco Arena son of Filippo and Clementina Furfari who died in 1938, and he is exactly the namesake row 132 warns about. THE METHOD IS THE REUSABLE PART: the volume's INDICE ANNUALE at image 74 gives «Polistena Camillo Antonio fu Giuseppe, parte 1a, numero 83», and the acts run TWO PER IMAGE, so act 83 is image 45. That is three downloads instead of seventy-five.
16 Sep 2026	NAA — Mario Crupi's internment file and naturalisation record, read done	NameSearch for CRUPI Mario across all record categories: twelve items. The internee dossier NAA: MP1103/1, Q30124 is digitised and was read; the naturalisation record NAA: A714, 9/4300 carries its detail in the item title itself.	HE WAS NATURALISED IN APRIL 1940 AND INTERNED IN APRIL 1942 ANYWAY, AND THAT IS THE FINDING. NAA A714 9/4300: «SURNAME CRUPI; GIVEN NAMES Mario; DATE OF NATURALISATION 26 APR 1940; PLACE OF BIRTH Piedimonte, Etneo Cattania, ITALY; PLACE OF RESIDENCE Ingham, QLD; ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Single.» He became a British subject two months before Italy entered the war. IT DID NOT PROTECT HIM. THE SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM, A.A.F. A.112, identification Q.30124 -- the same number as his aliens registration certificate: «Date of Capture 20.4.42. Place of Capture BEMERSIDE, INGHAM. Date of Birth 28.11.05. Place of Birth Piedimonte, Prov. Catania, Italy. Trade or Occupation CANE CUTTER. Religion Roman Catholic. Nationality ITALIAN (NAT.). Marital Condition MARRIED. Next of Kin MARIA CRUPI, P.O. Bemerside Via Ingham, WIFE. Hair black, eyes brown.» HE WAS TAKEN AT HIS OWN ADDRESS. THE ROUTE IS ON THE SAME SHEET: interned at GAYTHORNE 26 April, marched in ex Gaythorne to COWRA on 5 May, transferred to LOVEDAY 13 August and marched in there 17 August 1942, sent to a TRIBUNAL in January 1943, and RELEASED 29 DECEMBER 1943 -- twenty months. AND IT PROVES SOMETHING THIS ARCHIVE REFUSED TO CLAIM. The 1959 electoral roll put a Mario and a Maria Crupi at Tully with the address column blank on both, and the refusal to pair them on adjacency alone was right; the next-of-kin line pairs them properly. IT ALSO DATES THE MARRIAGE to between 26 April 1940, when he was SINGLE, and 20 April 1942, when he was married. FIVE MORE FILES ARE NOT YET OPENED: BP242/1 Q25743, his Queensland investigation case file; A435 1946/4/2800; D1901 C594; MP1103/2 Q30124; and J25 1955/16646.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1932, parte I, atto 9, read in full done	Rocco Arena's death act, found from the volume's INDICE ANNUALE («Arena Rocco fu Francesco Antonio, parte Ia, numero 9») and read at 1800px. Container w6zPMA1, image 8 of 63.	THE SECOND OF THE FOUR ACTS, AND IT CLOSES THE AMERICAN STORY IN THE PLACE IT STARTED. «e morto ARENA ROCCO, di anni SETTANTUNO, PESCATORE, residente in Scilla, nato in questo Comune, dal fu FRANCESCO ANTONIO e dalla fu ARLOTTA SERAFINA, VEDOVO DI COSTA GENEROSA.» HE DIED AT A QUARTER PAST SIX IN THE EVENING ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932, at the house in VIA PROF. ZAGARI, and the act was drawn the following morning. A FISHERMAN AND A WIDOWER. Generosa Costa had died in June 1916 and he outlived her by fifteen years and eight months. EVERY NAME AGREES WITH THE ARCHIVE: both parents, the wife, the town. WHAT IS NEW IS THE ADDRESS, THE TRADE AND THE HOUR. ONE SMALL TENSION, RECORDED RATHER THAN SMOOTHED: «di anni settantuno» would put his birth before February 1861, but his birth act is Nati 1861 ATTO 228, late in the year, and the 1900 US census says September 1861 -- which makes him SEVENTY. The birth act wins; an age on a death act is what two elderly neighbours told the registrar. THE COMPANY HE DIED AMONG IS WORTH NOTING: the declarants and witnesses are PONTILLO ROCCO FU GIOVANNI, LAMERI GIUSEPPE FU LUIGI, PONTILLO SANTO FU GIOVANNI and ALFONZETTI ROCCO FU ANTONINO -- two Pontillo brothers among them, in a street of fishermen, all four signing with a mark.
16 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1936, parte I, atti 14 and 20, read in full done	The death acts of Giovanni Arena and Michele Donato, both in the 1936 volume, found from its INDICE ANNUALE and read. Container 0AVjBab, images 10 and 13 of 57.	THE LAST TWO OF THE FOUR ACTS, AND THEY PUT TWO QUARTERS OF THIS FAMILY ON THE SAME STREET. GIOVANNI ARENA, atto 14: died 31 MARCH 1936 at nine in the morning, VIA GROTTE 72, «di anni OTTANTUNO, MARINAIO, dal fu ANTONIO e dalla fu ARLOTTA SERAFINA, MARITO DI RUSSO CONCETTA». The age is exact -- born 30 April 1854, he was eighty-one and a month short of eighty-two. His wife was still living. MICHELE DONATO, atto 20: died 10 MAY 1936 at six in the morning, VIA GROTTE 66, «di anni OTTANTA, MARINAIO, dal fu DOMENICO e da fu SOFI NUNZIATA, MARITO DI SOFI MARIA». SIXTY YARDS AND SIX WEEKS APART. AND ONE CORRECTION: the tree has Michele Donato born in 1851, which would make him eighty-five here and fifty-seven on the New Orleans manifest of 1908 that calls him fifty-two. THE DEATH ACT AND THE MANIFEST BOTH POINT AT 1855 OR 1856 and the tree is five years out. THE STREET IS THE LARGER FINDING AND IT WAS ALREADY IN THE ARCHIVE UNNOTICED: Fortunato Arena born at VIA GROTTE 70 in 1891, Giuseppe Arena at 75 in 1892, Maria Donato at 21 in 1888, Giovanni Polistena at 47 in 1883. THREE OF THE FOUR SCILLA QUARTERS LIVED ON ONE STREET, which is how they kept marrying each other. BOTH ACTS ALSO SHARE THEIR WITNESSES -- Mulinaro Domenico, twenty-two, a driver, and Delorenzo Rocco, thirty-three, an attendant -- who are municipal regulars rather than family.
17 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1912, parte I, atto 83, read in full done	The act behind the index line this archive read as Serafina Arena's death. Found from the volume's own INDICE — «Arena Serafina, di Rocco, Agosto 15, Numero 83, Parte 1a, Pagina 22» — and read. Container LeplDll, image 45 of 93.	IT IS NOT THE SERAFINA THIS ARCHIVE THOUGHT, AND THE ROW BUILT ON IT IS RETRACTED. «e morta ARENA SERAFINA, DI MESI TRE, residente in Scilla, NATA IN QUESTO COMUNE, da ROCCO, marinaro, domiciliato in Scilla, e da GENEROSA COSTA, casalinga.» THREE MONTHS OLD AND BORN AT SCILLA. Yesterday this archive recorded that Serafina Arena, baptised at Our Lady of Loretto in Manhattan on 15 August 1898, had died at Scilla on her FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY. The matching dates were what made it persuasive and they were a coincidence. WHAT MISLED ME IS WORTH NAMING: Antenati's name index prints «Nascita: Scilla» on these entries and I decided that field was a default rather than a claim, because believing it was inconvenient. IT WAS A CLAIM AND IT WAS CORRECT. WHAT IS FOUND INSTEAD IS A CHILD NOBODY HERE KNEW OF: Rocco Arena and Generosa Costa had a SECOND SERAFINA, born at Scilla about May 1912 in the QUARTIERE CHIANALEA, dead at three months. THEY GAVE THE NAME AGAIN FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER THE FIRST, which is the same reading this archive makes of their two sons named Antonio. AND IT PROVES SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSEHOLD: they were at Scilla and still having children in 1912, which is the return from America seen from the inside rather than inferred from three absences. GENEROSA COSTA WAS ABOUT FORTY-FOUR. THE NEW YORK SERAFINA HAS NO KNOWN FATE AGAIN. The act also gives Rocco as MARINARO, where his own death act of 1932 calls him PESCATORE.
17 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1915, parte I, atti 34 and 36, read in full done	The death acts of Domenico and Anna Arlotta, two days apart in March 1915, found from the volume's own INDICE and read. Container Lq2qDbM, images 20 and 21 of 95.	THE ACTS CONFIRM THE PARENTS AND DEFLATE MY OWN FRAMING OF THE DATES. DOMENICO ARLOTTA, atto 34: died at noon on 14 MARCH 1915 at the RIONE CHIANALEA, «di anni SETTANTATRE, MARINARO ... da fu GIOVANNI e da fu COSTA MARIA, marito di PONTILLO MARIA». ANNA ARLOTTA, atto 36: died at four in the morning on 16 MARCH 1915 at the QUARTIERE CHIANALEA, «di anni OTTANTA, casalinga ... da fu GIOVANNI e da fu COSTA MARIA, MOGLIE DI COSTA ANTONINO». BOTH PARENTS NAMED ON BOTH ACTS, so the sibling link and the cousin chain behind it now rest on the ACTS and not on an index line. Their ages date them: Anna about 1835, Domenico about 1842, against Serafina Arlotta's documented 13 June 1830. THE ROW ASKED WHETHER AN EPIDEMIC OR THE SEA TOOK THEM. NEITHER ACT SAYS, BECAUSE ITALIAN CIVIL DEATH ACTS DO NOT RECORD A CAUSE. AND THE ARITHMETIC TAKES THE DRAMA OUT OF IT: Scilla registered about a hundred and twenty-five deaths in 1915, which is one every three days, so TWO DEATHS IN A WEEK IS THE ORDINARY RATE and a third, ARENA FILIPPO on 17 March, makes three in four days without meaning anything either. WHAT IS ACTUALLY NOTABLE IS NOT THE TIMING BUT THE ADDRESS: both died in CHIANALEA, the fishing quarter -- where ROCCO ARENA AND GENEROSA COSTA'S INFANT DAUGHTER had died three years earlier. An eighty-year-old and her brother of seventy-three, in the same quarter, two days apart, is most simply one household and one illness; the register will not say so and this archive should not either.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, the annual death indexes of 1897–1908 done	The A section of every annual death index from 1897 to 1908 — twelve years, less 1909, which Antenati does not hold — read at full resolution for FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA and SERAFINA ARLOTTA. Containers for all twelve are saved in scilla-arks-italiano.tsv.	BOTH FOUND, AND THE SWEEP IS FINISHED. FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA died 29 AUGUST 1901 — Morti 1901, parte I, atto 96 — and SERAFINA ARLOTTA died 24 APRIL 1908 — Morti 1908, parte I, atto 55 — BOTH AT VIA GROTTE NUMBER TWO, the same house, six years and eight months apart. Read in full in scilla-reads. THE YEARS THAT WERE CLEAR, kept so no one reads them again. 1897: Arena Nicolina di Filippo (10), two Anastasi, Arbitrio Antonio (111), Arlotta Antonio di Rocco (144), Arlotta Giuseppa di Filippo (185), Andaloro Pasquale (200). 1898: Alfonzetti Concetta (4), Arbitrio Rocco (44), Arena Rocco di Rocco (55), Anastasi Antonio (88), an ARENA FRANCESCO GIOVANNI with no act number written, Arena Rocco di Giuseppe (91), Alfonzetti Maria (102), Alfonzetti Antonia (109). 1899: five entries and no Arena at all. 1900: clear. 1902: ONE ENTRY IN THE WHOLE YEAR — Andaloro Maria Antonia fu Francesco (76) — and not a single Arena or Arlotta death in a town where both are among the commonest names. 1903: Alfonzetti Michelangelo fu Onofrio, Arlotta Rocco fu Orazio, Arlotta Maria di Filippo. 1905: Arlotta Maria fu Antonio (1), Arlotta Rosaria fu Pasquale (12), Arbitrio Giuseppe di Natale (28), Arena Rocco fu Orazio (70), Alfonzetti Giuseppe (113), Andaloro Anna Maria (138). 1907: TWO ENTRIES — Arlotta Antonio fu Orazio (20) and Arbitrio Marianna di Rocco (124). SIX LEADS LEFT LYING, all Arena, none yet read: Arena Raffaele fu Giuseppe (1901, atto 63); ARENA COSMO DI FILIPPO (1904, atto 122) — a LIVING father Filippo, and Rocco Arena's eldest brother Filippo, born 1852, would be fifty-two that year; ARENA NICOLINA DI GIUSEPPE (1906, atto 41) — Rocco's brother Giuseppe, born 1860, married Maria Martello in 1885; Arena Rocco di Alessandro (1906, atto 141); ARENA GIOVANNA DI ROCCO (1908, parte II, atto 2); and Arena Santo fu Rocco (1908, atto 108). THE METHOD, WHICH IS THE PART THAT TRANSFERS. Container ids cost one rate-limited page load each and are SAVED; manifests and images fetch to curl unlimited. The index sits at a different offset in every volume — n−6 to n−9 across these twelve — so tools/antenati_index.py montages the last six to ten images into one contact sheet, read once to locate the A page. THE SCAN OFTEN CROPS THE LEFT PAGE'S SURNAME COLUMN, and the frame BEFORE it re-shoots the same opening whole: that alone rescued 1904 and 1908. Acts run FOUR to an opening, so act-to-image is arithmetic off any one calibration. AND SEE THE CORRECTION FILED WITH THIS ROW: the 1908 index entered Serafina Arlotta under her HUSBAND'S surname, Arena.
17 Sep 2026	The National Archives (UK), Discovery — every surname and town of this family done	Discovery's public JSON API, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/API/search/records?sps.searchQuery=..., queried for PROSTAMO, POLISTENA, CRUPI, ARLOTTA, VENTRICE, MELLUSO, CICHELLO, ZIRILLI, FRAGALA, and for the towns SCILLA, BRIATICO and PIEDIMONTE ETNEO.	NOTHING HERE FOR THIS FAMILY, AND THE REASON IS STRUCTURAL RATHER THAN BAD LUCK. ZERO RESULTS for PROSTAMO, POLISTENA, CICHELLO, ZIRILLI, FRAGALA, BRIATICO and PIEDIMONTE ETNEO. The few hits on the other names are demonstrably other people: CRUPI returns a Royal Warwickshire medal card for a «Crupie, C A» and a photograph of Monreale cathedral; ARLOTTA returns a merchant seaman born at UDINE in 1934 and a naturalisation for a Maria Arlotta Cook born 1923; MELLUSO returns an academic paper. WHY IT WAS ALWAYS UNLIKELY: this family moved ITALY TO AUSTRALIA and ITALY TO NEW YORK and never through Britain. The Kew series that would matter -- BT 26 and BT 27, the inward and outward passenger lists -- cover UK PORTS ONLY, and every crossing this archive holds left Genoa, Messina or Naples. ONE ANGLE IS NOT CLOSED AND IS WORTH A ROW: TNA holds MERCHANT SEAMEN records that DO carry an Italian birthplace -- BT 372 registry cards and BT 99 crew agreements, the latter showing entries like «place of birth, Napoli» -- and this family is full of MARINAI: Giovanni Arena and Michele Donato are both «marinaio» on their 1936 acts, Domenico Arlotta on his of 1915, Antonino Prostamo «marinaro». If any of them ever signed on a BRITISH-REGISTERED ship they would be in these series. It is a long shot and it is a real one. AND A TRAP WORTH THE RECORD: Discovery throttles with HTTP 202 AND AN EMPTY BODY. A scraper reads that as zero results, which is exactly how a rate limit becomes a published negative -- the same failure shape as Antenati's 403 and Findmypast's dead parameters. Poll until 200 and a non-empty body before believing any count.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1908 parte II, the transcribed foreign deaths done	Parte II of the 1908 Scilla death volume, opened to chase «Arena Giovanna di Rocco» from the annual index — a possible daughter of Rocco Arena.	THE LEAD CLOSES AND A WHOLE SERIES OPENS. Arena Giovanna, nine, born at Scilla, died AT MARSEILLE on 1 February 1905; her mother is FRANCESCA MARTELLO, not Generosa Costa, so she is not Rocco Arena's daughter. But PARTE II OF A SCILLA DEATH VOLUME IS A REGISTER OF DEATHS ABROAD, transcribed on the order of the Procuratore del Re at Reggio from certificates issued by foreign authorities, and this archive has never opened one. The 1908 parte II holds five acts and three of them are foreign: NEW YORK (Gulli Rocco, 27, a fractured skull, 17 August 1907, transcribed from an English certificate with a translation at his widow's request), MARSEILLE and TUNIS. Rocco Arena crossed to New York four times and Giovanni Arena followed him in 1899. Parte II sits at the back of each volume immediately before the annual index and is only a few acts long, so eighty-one volumes is an affordable sweep, not a dream.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1904 atto 122 and 1906 atto 41, the two best Arena leads done	The two leads out of the 1897–1908 index sweep that named a LIVING father whose name this archive already holds: «Arena Cosmo di Filippo» (1904) and «Arena Nicolina di Giuseppe» (1906). Rocco Arena's brothers are a Filippo born 1852 and a Giuseppe born 1860.	ONE CLEAN NEGATIVE AND ONE CANDIDATE THAT NEEDS A MARRIAGE ACT. ARENA NICOLINA IS NOT GIUSEPPE ARENA'S DAUGHTER. She was FORTY when she died on 14 March 1906 at Via Grotte 17 — born about 1866, when Rocco's brother Giuseppe was six. Her father is another Giuseppe Arena, pescatore, still living; her mother the late MARIANNA ROMANO; her husband Giuseppe Cesoriero. That makes a FOURTH distinct Arena household at Scilla. ARENA COSMO IS CLOSED TOO, AN HOUR LATER AND FOR NOTHING. Three months old, dead 1 December 1904 at VICO SAN MICHELE 13, son of FILIPPO, pescatore, and CLEMENTINA FARFARI, lavandaia. THE ACT GIVES THE FATHER NO AGE, so whether this Filippo is Rocco's eldest brother, born 14 February 1852, cannot be settled here. THE TEST IS FILIPPO ARENA'S MARRIAGE ACT, which names his parents; Scilla's civil marriages 1866–1913 are all on Antenati and a man born 1852 married about 1875–1885. A SIDEWAYS PROOF WORTH HAVING: CESORIERO DOMENICO, becchino, is 46 in August 1901 declaring Francesco Antonio Arena's death and 49 in December 1904 declaring this child's — three years and four months, exact. Two gravediggers buried this parish for a decade and their ages hold. RESOLVED BY ONE QUERY INSTEAD OF TEN VOLUMES. The plan was to sweep Scilla's annual MARRIAGE indexes 1874-1885 for Filippo Arena's wedding; seven of those years had no container saved and would have cost a rate-limited page load each before a single image. Instead the ANTENATI NAME INDEX, which carries the SPOUSE, was re-read: FILIPPO ARENA died at Scilla on 17 MARCH 1915, «Padre GIOVANNI ARENA, Madre NATALINA LONGORDO, Coniuge CLEMENTINA FURFARI», and a son of his, ROCCO ARENA, died 31 March 1938 with the same parents. So Cosmo's father is the son of Giovanni Arena and Natalina Longordo, NOT of Francesco Antonio Arena and Serafina Arlotta. ARENA COSMO IS NOT ROCCO ARENA'S NEPHEW, and Rocco's brother Filippo is still missing. THE INDEX ALSO CORRECTED MY TRANSCRIPTION: FURFARI, not Farfari. THE LESSON IS THE ORDER OF OPERATIONS. When a question is «who were this man's parents», ask the NAME INDEX before planning a volume sweep -- it answers with father, mother and spouse in one GET, and it covers 1910-1943, which reaches back over anyone who was alive then.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — the six Scilla surnames re-run and WRITTEN OUT IN FULL done	Arlotta, Costa, Donato, Polistena, Romano, Pontillo and Musolino at Scilla, «cerca per nome», s_size=100, paced at 4–4.5 seconds and control-tested against «403 Forbidden» on every fetch. All seven had been run before by earlier sessions (rows 128, 130, 131, 132); this pass existed to WRITE THE DECEASED OUT IN FULL rather than summarise them.	THE COUNTS. Arlotta 75 records / 24 deceased. Costa 76 / 18. Donato 26 / 11. Polistena 73 / 25. Romano 79 / 26. Pontillo 50 / 24. MUSOLINO 7 / 2. THE NEGATIVE THAT ANSWERS A ROW. MARIANTONIA MUSOLINO — Orazio Arena's apparent second wife — IS NOT IN THE INDEX. Scilla has only seven Musolino records at all and the two deceased are Domenico Musolino (d. 17 April 1911, son of Bruno Musolino and Grazia Longordo) and Francesca Musolino (d. 7 November 1928, father Francesco). Neither is she. She is named only from inside her son's act. So she died outside 1911–1943 or away from Scilla, and the ONLY remaining route to her is Orazio Arena's second marriage act. FOUR HOUSEHOLDS WRITTEN INTO corrections.tsv: Giovanna Romano's three sisters (Maria d. 1917 m. Giovanni Cardona, Concetta d. 1926 m. ROCCO DONATO, Mariantonia d. 1930 m. Matteo Bova); the four children of Lorenzo Costa and Generosa Polistena, including GENEROSA COSTA'S OWN FATHER Antonio, d. 1 June 1915; Domenico Arlotta's wife MARIA PONTILLO, d. 1922, with her parents; and the guard on the two Generosa Costas. FOUR DONATO–POLISTENA TIES, NOT TWO, which is what row 138 wants: Maria Donato d. 1911, wife of GIUSEPPE POLISTINA; Raffaele Polistena x TERESA DONATO, whose children Santa (1926), Maria (1927) and Luigi (1933) all die at Scilla; Giovanni Polistena x ANNUNZIATA DONATO, whose daughter Teresa dies in 1933; and Rocco Polistena, d. 1923, husband of NUNZIATA POLISTENA — a Polistena marrying a Polistena, which is the surname endogamy this archive has already met among the Bueti and the Vizzari. AND THE HONEST COST OF THIS PASS. Every one of these seven surnames had already been queried, days ago, and the results summarised in a sentence apiece. Because they were summarised, they had to be fetched again. THE RULE, NOW STATED TWICE IN ONE DAY: when a query returns a bounded set — twenty-six rows, not twenty-six thousand — WRITE THE SET DOWN. The cost of the paragraph is smaller than the cost of the second search, and the second search is rate-limited. AND THE REACH, WHICH THIS ROW DID NOT STATE AND SHOULD HAVE. Antenati's “cerca per nome” covers SCILLA DEATHS 1911-1943 AND NOTHING ELSE for this comune -- no births, no marriages, nothing before 1911. So every nil taken from it here, MARIANTONIA MUSOLINO above all, means only «she did not die at Scilla between 1911 and 1943 under a name the indexers transcribed that way». It is not evidence that she is absent from Scilla's registers, and the row's own conclusion -- that the only remaining route to her is Orazio Arena's second marriage act -- is the right one for that reason and not for the one given.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the complete Scilla register list, all three fondi done	/search-registry/?localita=Scilla&s_size=500 — every register Antenati holds for the comune, in one page load, to find out whether the marriage PROCESSETTI exist for the Arena weddings of 1885 and 1888.	466 REGISTERS. 17 napoleonic, 182 restaurazione, 267 italiano. THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ASKED IS NO: there are TWENTY-TWO processetti volumes and they run 1810 to 1865 and STOP. The Italian-era fondo holds none, so the 1885 and 1888 bundles are not on Antenati and row 64's Italian half is closed. THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION NOT ASKED IS MUCH BETTER. Francesco Antonio Arena and Serafina Arlotta married 7 FEBRUARY 1851, and the bundle for it is the volume 1849-1852, ark an_ua2002487. Processetti carry both spouses' BIRTH extracts and the DEATH acts of dead parents -- and the Scilla bundle of 1842-1845 carried a dead grandparent as well. One volume therefore attacks row 68 (Filippo Arena and Domenica Costa's deaths), row 39 (Giovanni Arlotta x Maria Costa's marriage) and row 85 (Domenico Arlotta) at once. AND SCILLA'S REGISTRATION BEGINS IN 1809, NOT 1816. This archive has been saying 1816 and planning around it -- see the caution written after Domenico Arlotta. Seven unopened years: Matrimoni and Morti 1809; Matrimoni, Morti and Nati 1810, 1811, 1812 and 1815; Matrimoni 1813-1814. All arks now in data/scilla-arks.tsv. PARAMETER TRAP, RECORDED: ?citta=Scilla returns ZERO with no error; ?localita=Scilla returns 466. Control-test before believing a nil.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni processetti 1849–1852, fascicolo 13 of 1851, read in full done	The marriage bundle of FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA and SERAFINA ARLOTTA, 7 February 1851 — found by listing Scilla's registers, buying one container, and locating the fascicolo wrapper by SHAPE in a thumbnail montage.	FOUR SHEETS, AND THE FIRST TWO ARE WORTH THE WHOLE DAY. FOGLIO 1 — FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA'S BIRTH ACT, act 186 of 1819, the ACT and not the Tavola this archive has been citing. 25 November 1819, twelve o'clock, in the family's own house. FILIPPO ARENA, DI ANNI VENTICINQUE, MARINARO -- born about 1794 -- and DOMENICA COSTA, DI ANNI VENTISETTE -- born about 1792. Two generation-seven people who had no dates at all now have ages, from an act in which Filippo appeared in person. AND HE SIGNED IT, in a register where almost every act ends «perche illetterati». Baptised the next day at the Parrocchia di Scilla. FOGLIO 2 — SERAFINA ARLOTTA'S BIRTH ACT, AND IT IS ACT 89, NOT ACT 2. This archive cites «Nati 1830 atto 2» in three places; 2 is a Tavola row number. The date holds: born 13 JUNE 1830 AT TWO IN THE NIGHT in her parents' house, declared next afternoon by her father. MARIA COSTA, DI ANNI VENTITRE -- born about 1807, her first date of any kind. And GIOVANNI ARLOTTA, DI ANNI QUARANTA -- born about 1790, which CONFLICTS BY ELEVEN YEARS with his own 1854 declaration of seventy-five. Flagged, not averaged. Witness DOMENICO COSTA, commerciante, 46, produced by the father: a candidate for Maria Costa's own father and nothing more. WHAT THE BUNDLE DOES NOT CONTAIN IS ALSO EVIDENCE. No death act of any parent, where fascicolo 3 of the same year binds in «Atto di morte del padre e dell'avo paterno dello Sposo». The ordinary reading is that all four parents were alive on 7 February 1851. Graded inferred, because the bride was twenty and no consent sheet is listed either. NAVIGATION, WHICH IS THE REUSABLE PART. The volume is 1845 images over four years and its interior order is loose. Each fascicolo opens with a WRAPPER — nearly blank left page, short centred list on the right — and wrappers are findable BY SHAPE in a montage of thumbnails at width 430, with no text read at all. In 1851 they sit at images 1100 (num. 3), 1190 (num. 13), 1280 (num. 24), 1430 (num. 37). DO NOT navigate by the «Num. d'ordine» on the atti di notificazione bound inside: that is a separate publication series running at a different rate, and following it walks you into the wrong month.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Giovanni Arlotta x Maria Costa's marriage: three processetti volumes sized, then rate-limited part	The marriage that would settle Giovanni Arlotta's eleven-year age conflict and decide whether the Domenico Arlotta generation belongs to this family. Serafina Arlotta was born 13 June 1830, so the wedding is 1829 or earlier; the candidate bundles are Scilla processetti 1828-1831 and 1824-1827.	NOT FOUND YET, AND THE GROUND IS PREPARED. CONTAINERS BOUGHT AND SAVED: 1828-1831 = LD6PQKn (1296 images), 1824-1827 = 5xYoOBO (1416 images), and 1849-1852 = 58rXBoX (1845 images). YEAR MAP FOR LD6PQKn, read off a ten-point thumbnail scan: 1830 runs roughly images 700-1000 -- wrappers dated «Anno 1830» sit at images 740 and 880 -- which puts 1829 at roughly 450-700 and 1828 before that. THE VOLUME HAS NO YEAR INDEX: its last six images are ordinary documents, not a tavola, so the fascicolo wrappers are the only finding aid. THEN THE RATE LIMITER. Three ark lookups for the Scilla MARRIAGE registers of 1828, 1829 and 1830 -- the cheaper route, because an annual marriage Tavola gives the act number and the fascicolo number follows it -- ALL THREE RETURNED «403 Forbidden». Caught by the control test and recorded as a block, NOT as three absent registers. That distinction is the whole reason the test exists. The arks are in scilla-arks.tsv (1828 an_ua2002545, 1829 an_ua2002548, 1830 an_ua2002551); only the containers are owed, and they cost one paced page load each once the block lifts. IMAGES ARE NOT RATE LIMITED and never were -- the whole thumbnail scan above was run while the HTML side was blocked.
20 Sep 2026	NAA — Antonino Crupi's aliens registration card, read in full; and the whole CRUPI name index done	NameSearch on CRUPI across ALL record categories — 233 items, pulled 200 to a page and read end to end — then the D4028 card for Antonino Crupi, both sides, at full resolution.	THE CARD. NAA: D4028, CRUPI ANTONIO, item 9209610, digitised and free. Certificate Q 5949 / Q 7838. ANTONINO CRUPI, born 5 OCTOBER 1907 at PIEDIMONTE ETNEO, ITALY. A BOOT REPAIRER. Address Box 484, Ingham; Abbott Street, Ingham. MARRIED. Entered Australia 2 SEPTEMBER 1930, PORT OF DEBARKATION BRISBANE. Five feet four; eyes black; hair black; build sturdy; NOTABLE MARKS: THE FOURTH FINGER OF THE RIGHT HAND DEFORMED. Registered 3 OCTOBER 1939 at INGHAM police station. HE WAS INTERNED, AND THAT IS THE THIRD MAN. The front is stamped LOVEDAY 35924. The CHANGE OF ADDRESS panel on the reverse reads «ex Gay[thorne] to 14A 16.3.43», then «LCCE 1/207 2.4.43 MAIL EXTRACT to wife, Q'land», then «22/10/43 Released and returned to Queensland». So: moved into Loveday compound 14A in March 1943 and released seven months later. ROSARIO MAZZA was interned on his own dossier; MARIO CRUPI at Loveday from 18 August 1942 to 30 December 1943; ANTONINO CRUPI released 22 October 1943. Angela Crupi's husband and two of her brothers, all three behind wire in the same eighteen months. AND THE CENSOR COPIED A SENTENCE OF HIS ONTO HIS REGISTRATION CARD. The mail extract of 2 April 1943, from a letter to his wife in Queensland, is quoted on the card: «... Our freedom will come soon and we shall always cry Vive Italia.» It is the only sentence of his own that this archive has, and it survives because an official wrote it down as evidence against him. Read across two overlapping enlargements; the middle words are the least certain. PIETRO HAS NO CARD, AND THE REASON IS A FINDING. NAA: BP4/3 ITALIAN CRUPI P: «Alien Registration Certificate NOT ISSUED», the folio noting he was NATURALISED 23 FEBRUARY 1932. By 1939 he was a British subject and outside the series entirely. THE TWO BROTHERS CAME TOGETHER. NAA: BP9/3 ITALIAN CRUPI P and CRUPI A both read «arrived in Brisbane on OTRANTO 19 AUGUST 1930» -- Pietro born 1898, Antonino born 1907. Antonino's own card gives his entry as 2 September, two weeks after the ship docked: the same two-true-dates pattern already recorded for the passenger index. And BP9/3 ITALIAN CRUPI M names MARIO'S ship: «Crupi, Mariano born 1905 -- arrived in Brisbane on MARIA CRISTINA 20 MAY 1928», against the 13 June 1928 on his card. TWO NATURALISATIONS. A714 57/18792: ANTONINO naturalised 7 NOVEMBER 1946, born 1907 at Piedimonte, RESIDENT AT TULLY, wife NELLIE. A714 9/4300: MARIO naturalised 26 APRIL 1940, born 1905, resident at Ingham, SINGLE. THE TRAP, AND IT IS ONE BARCODE AWAY. Item 9209609 is ALSO a D4028 card for a CRUPI ANTONIO -- born at SERRATA, arrived MELBOURNE 20 October 1926. Serrata is in Calabria, not Sicily. Three consecutive barcodes, 9209609 / 9209610 / 9209611, and the middle and last are this family while the first is a stranger with the same name. Adjacency in an alphabetical card series is not kinship. ONE CONFLICT LEFT OPEN. The card says MARRIED in October 1939, and this archive notes an Antonino Crupi marrying in Queensland on 24 AUGUST 1940. Either that marriage is another man, or «married» was written on the card later. Not resolved here. UNREAD AND WANTED: NAA: BP242/1 Q16634, «Crupi, Antonio and Maria -- Queensland investigation case file», 1939-1957, Brisbane, ACCESS OPEN. That is very likely Antonino's own security file and it is the document behind the internment.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — the complete PROSTAMO set, all thirteen items, and POSTAMO as a control done	NameSearch, all record categories, on PROSTAMO — chasing Domenica Prostamo's March 1951 crossing (row 21) and testing whether she is hidden under the POSTAMO spelling that the Queensland death index uses for her.	POSTAMO RETURNS ZERO AND IT IS A TRUE NIL. «No records match the search criteria» — and the control, PROSTAMO, returns thirteen on the same form in the same minute. Queensland's registrar writes her POSTAMO on her daughter's death registration; the National Archives does not. DOMENICA PROSTAMO'S 1951 CROSSING IS STILL NOT THERE. She appears only inside her husband's file title, J25 1971/1074, «Mazza, Sebastiano; wife Domenica [nee Prostamo]». ALL THIRTEEN, WRITTEN OUT. B78 ITALIAN/PROSTAMO ROCCO: Rocco Prostamo, arrived MELBOURNE per NAPOLI 15 August 1949 (6423720). BP25/1 ITALIAN PROSTAMO F: Francesco Prostamo, arrived BRISBANE on the T/v ROMA 21 OCTOBER 1957 (5067016). BP25/1 ITALIAN TRUNGADI F: «Trungadi [nee Prostamo], Francesca», arrived BRISBANE on the T/v ROMA 21 OCTOBER 1957 (5080545). B78 ITALIAN/PROSTAMO FRANCESCA: a DIFFERENT Francesca, arrived MELBOURNE per OCEANIA 5 January 1956, «also known as CORSO» (6423719). PP14/3 ITALIAN/PROSTAMO G: GABRIELE PROSTAMO, Perth, application for registration as alien, CIRCA 1916-1920 (5137304). PP14/3 ITALIAN/PROSTAMO F: FRANCESCO PROSTAMO, Perth, same series, CIRCA 1916-1920 (5137303). J25 1971/1074: Mazza, Sebastiano; wife Domenica [nee Prostamo] (5121679). J25 1962/5930: Prostamo, Domenico Francesco; wife ASSUNTE MARIA [nee MELLUSO] (1682238). J25 1972/23086: Melluso, Gregorio; wife Carmela; and children Giuseppe, Maria [surname PROSTAMO] (5072628). J25 1961/3716: PROSTAMO, Antonino Giacomo and Angela [nee TOMSIC] (12901469). J25 1963/2810: Prostamo, Francesco (1681780). B44 V1974/35793: Prostamo, Francesca, Melbourne (4011946). B44 V1970/39910: Prostamo, R, Melbourne (14758061). THE CORRECTION THIS SET FORCES. This archive has Francesco Prostamo arriving at FREMANTLE on 10 OCTOBER 1957, graded «documented» because the NAA passenger index, the ship and the embarkation port all agreed. THE BRISBANE ALIENS SERIES SAYS HE ARRIVED AT BRISBANE ON 21 OCTOBER. Both are true and they answer different questions: 10 October is when the ROMA first touched Australia, 21 October is when he got off it. The family settled in Queensland, and the port of debarkation is the one that says so. Same for Francesca, on the same voyage. A NAME TO WATCH, NOT TO MERGE. The catalogue calls her «TRUNGADI [nee Prostamo], Francesca». The manifest, read in the original, makes the Francesca on that voyage FRANCESCO'S DAUGHTER, BORN 1945 AT BRIATICO, AGED TWELVE -- and a twelve-year-old is not «nee» anything. The likeliest reading is that the registration card was annotated with a married name years later and the catalogue transcribed the card's final state. TRUNGADI is therefore a married surname to look for, not a second woman. AND TWO PROSTAMO IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR. PP14/3 holds alien registration applications for GABRIELE PROSTAMO and FRANCESCO PROSTAMO at Perth, CIRCA 1916-1920 -- thirty years earlier than anything this archive holds in Australia, and in the wrong state. Unread.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — the complete POLISTENA set, fifty items, separated from the town of the same name done	NameSearch, all record categories, on POLISTENA, read out in full at 200 to a page.	FIFTY ITEMS, AND THE FIRST THING TO DO WITH THEM IS SPLIT THEM IN TWO. POLISTENA IS A COMUNE IN REGGIO CALABRIA AS WELL AS A SURNAME, and NameSearch does not know the difference: four A714 naturalisations come back for men named OLIMPIO, MARFEA, FOGLIADORO and PALESTRI whose PLACE OF BIRTH is Polistena, and three A7919 prisoner-of-war records for SAVARESE, ROSSI and BOTTIGLIERI, born there and captured in Africa. THIS ARCHIVE'S POLISTENA ARE FROM SCILLA, seventy kilometres away. Seven of the fifty are the town, not the family. THREE HITS THAT MATTER. ONE. J25 1971/3900, Brisbane, 1953-1971: «ARENA, ROCCO; WIFE ANGELINA [OR ANGELA] [NEE POLISTENA]». Row 80 of the work list says their marriage «is not documented anywhere in this archive». HERE IS A COMMONWEALTH FILE THAT NAMES THEM AS HUSBAND AND WIFE AND GIVES HER MAIDEN NAME. It does not date the marriage; it proves it and it names the file that may. Not yet examined, held at Brisbane. TWO. BP9/3, ITALIAN POLISTENA G: «Polistena, GIOVANNI BORN 1883 - arrived in BRISBANE on the ORMONDE on 21 FEBRUARY 1928». This archive's GIOVANNI POLISTENA was born at Scilla in 1883, act 206, and is already documented sailing from PALERMO to NEW ORLEANS on the LIGURIA in February 1908, on the line immediately after Michele Donato. A SECOND MIGRATION, TWENTY YEARS LATER AND TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD, would explain how this family reached Queensland at all. The year of birth matches exactly and the port is the right one. IT IS A CANDIDATE AND NOT A FINDING: the entry carries no parents and no birthplace. The test is the item itself, or a Queensland record placing him there in the 1930s. THREE. TWO MORE DONATO-POLISTENA MARRIAGES, IN QUEENSLAND THIS TIME. J25 1967/9873: «Polistena, Giuseppe; wife MARIA MADDALENA [NEE DONATO]». J25 1970/3023: «DONATO, CONCETTA [NEE POLISTENA]». With the four already found in the Scilla death index, that is SIX marriages between these two families across two countries and two generations. THE REST OF THE FAMILY-PLAUSIBLE ITEMS, written out so nobody pays for this again. SP908/1 (Sydney aliens): Maria Angela Polistena [nee Lipari], NEPTUNIA 24 May 1954; Annunziata Lipari also known as Polistena, ROMA 26 Nov 1964; Domenico Polistena, SURRIENTO 20 July 1950; Vincenzo Polistena, SURRIENTO 20 July 1950; Maria Carmela Polistena [nee Multari], aircraft 31 Aug 1963; Annunziato, Salvatore and Antonino Polistena, all aircraft 31 Aug 1963; Bellardina Polistena, SYDNEY 22 June 1957; Maria Vincenza Polistena, ROMA 26 Nov 1964. BP289/1 (Brisbane): Giuseppe, Fremantle 21 Mar 1968; Maria Pace, Sydney 29 June 1968; Maria, Brisbane 9 May 1964; Teresa, Brisbane 6 Mar 1965. B78 (Melbourne): Carmelo, 7 June 1964; Vincenzo, UGOLINO VIVALDI 17 Feb 1949; Maria, ROMA 22 Nov 1964, also known as MAFRICI. A7109: VITA POLISTENA, born 1919, per SURRIENTO, certificate 159164. J25 1971/4767: Polistena, Teresa, Brisbane. SP244/2: Vincenzo and Domenico Polistena, Sydney 1950, both with PHOTOGRAPHS ATTACHED. AND ONE ODDITY WORTH A LINE: B741 V/4249, «Misuse of letters of recall - Italian immigration», Melbourne 1927, whose description includes a newspaper article -- «DEATH DUEL WITH HOOKS - Guiseppe Antonio Cricri and Vincenzo Polistena». Not this family on any evidence, and recorded because a searcher meeting it later should not have to wonder.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — the complete MELLUSO set, seventeen items done	NameSearch, all record categories, on MELLUSO, written out in full. Queensland's own index returns exactly ONE Melluso registration, so this archive had Gregorio Melluso with no siblings and no children recorded anywhere in Australia.	SEVENTEEN ITEMS, AND TWO OF THEM NAME A HUSBAND THIS ARCHIVE DID NOT HAVE. J25 1962/5930, Brisbane, 1952-1966: «PROSTAMO, DOMENICO FRANCESCO; WIFE ASSUNTE MARIA [NEE MELLUSO]». That is MARIA ASSUNTA MELLUSO, born about 1936 to Gregorio Melluso and Carmela Maria Borello, buried at Mount Gravatt in 1991 -- «the first Prostamo ever found in the Queensland index, and she was born a Melluso». HER HUSBAND'S NAME IS DOMENICO FRANCESCO PROSTAMO, and this is the first record of him. J25 1972/23086, Brisbane, 1959-1974: «MELLUSO, GREGORIO; WIFE CARMELA; AND CHILDREN GIUSEPPE, MARIA [SURNAME PROSTAMO]». Gregorio's own household, which Queensland's index could not show. «Wife Carmela» is Carmela Maria Borello. THE BRACKET IS AMBIGUOUS AND MUST NOT BE READ PAST: a daughter Maria carrying the surname Prostamo is simply Maria Assunta married; a SON Giuseppe carrying it is not, and would mean Carmela brought Prostamo children into the marriage. THE FILE TITLE IS A FINDING AID. Opening it would settle which, and it is «not yet examined». THE REST, WRITTEN OUT. SP1122/1 N1957/47306: Melluso, Rocco -- Italian migrant naturalisation file, Sydney, 1957-1963, «open with exception». MP1103/1 and MP1103/2, PWI49751: PRISONER OF WAR/INTERNEE MELLUSO, CARMELO, born 19 APRIL 1919, Italian, Melbourne -- a prisoner of war shipped to Australia, not a resident interned, and no evidence connects him here. BP289/1 001102370: Melluso, Giuseppe, arrived 29 February 1968 at Fremantle aboard GALILEO, file held at BRISBANE. A12038 995: PETRONIO-MELLUSO Felicia, born 25 September 1925. J25 1970/5204: PALMIERI, Antonio [born 1927]; wife VINCENZA [NEE MELLUSO] [born 1943]. C321 N1973/050286: Melluso, Carmela, Sydney. A9111 1981/1284: MELLUSO, Leonardo. B44 V1986/23418: Melluso, V, Melbourne. AND FIVE MELLUSO WOMEN ARE CATALOGUED UNDER MARRIED NAMES: Lucia DI BIASI «also known as Melluso»; Nicolina PAONE «also known as Melluso»; Domenica MELLUSO «also known as Patamia»; Vincenza MILETO «also known as Melluso»; and ORIANA (nee MELLUSO) Vicenta. THE SAME LESSON THE 1908 Scilla death index taught about Serafina Arlotta, in a different archive on the other side of the world: A MARRIED WOMAN IS INDEXED UNDER WHICHEVER NAME THE CLERK HAD, and a sweep that only reads the maiden surname column will miss her. Here the catalogue happens to carry both.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1828 atto 28 and the annual Tavola, read in full done	Giovanni Arlotta x Maria Costa's marriage — the act that would settle an eleven-year conflict in his age and decide whether the Domenico Arlotta generation belongs to this family. Found from the annual Tavola after 1829 was cleared and 1830 was not needed.	ACT 28 OF 1828, AND IT SETTLES MORE THAN IT WAS ASKED TO. Scilla, 30 AUGUST 1828: GIOVANNI ARLOTTA, DI ANNI VENTOTTO, marinaro, FIGLIO DI FU DOMENICO ARLOTTA E DI ANNA BARBARO; and MARIA COSTA, D'ANNI VENTISEI, FIGLIA DI ROCCO DI COSTA, marinaro, E DI PASQUALINA IDONE. Banns posted Sunday 3 August; church wedding 7 SEPTEMBER 1828 before D. Domenico Zanghi and Bruno Ingrigneri. THE BRIDE'S PARENTS ATTENDED AND CONSENTED IN PERSON -- so Rocco Costa and Pasqualina Idone were both alive and in the room. DOMENICO ARLOTTA IS CONFIRMED AND DATED. He is «FU Domenico» here, so DEAD BEFORE 30 AUGUST 1828, twenty-six years tighter than the «before April 1854» this archive carried -- and the generation is not dislodged, which was the real risk. THREE NEW PEOPLE: ANNA BARBARO, Giovanni's mother; ROCCO COSTA and PASQUALINA IDONE, Maria's parents. All three alive in 1828, none in the family tree. AND IT BREAKS TWO AGES, ONE OF THEM WRITTEN BY ME THIS MORNING. Giovanni Arlotta is TWENTY-EIGHT here (b. c. 1800), FORTY on his daughter's birth act of 1830, and SEVENTY-FIVE on his grandson's of 1854 -- three of his own declarations spanning twenty-one years. The marriage act is preferred. Twenty-eight in 1828 is thirty in 1830, and «trenta» written or read as «quaranta» is ordinary; the 1854 «settantacinque» is not, and stays open as either a badly wrong age or a second Giovanni Arlotta son of a late Domenico. MARIA COSTA is TWENTY-SIX here (b. c. 1802) and this archive entered her as «c. 1807» a few hours earlier off the 1830 act. CORRECTED, WITH THE OLD FIGURE LEFT ON THE RECORD. A CANDIDATE WITHDRAWN BY THE SAME ACT. A DOMENICO COSTA, commerciante, forty-six, witnessed Serafina's registration in 1830 and was recorded here as a candidate for Maria Costa's father, graded «candidate» precisely so it could be withdrawn. HER FATHER WAS ROCCO. That is what the grade was for. AND THE TAVOLA CLOSED ANOTHER ROW FOR FREE. The 1828 annual index names BOTH SPOUSES' PARENTS, and its FIRST entry is «ARENA ANTONIO e DE LUCA SERAFINA -- ORAZIO e MORABITO LETTERIA / FILIPPO e ALFONZETTI ANNA -- 10 Ag.o 1828 -- atto 26». That is the OTHER Antonio Arena married to a Serafina, the collision guarded this morning; his parents are ORAZIO ARENA and LETTERIA MORABITO, which is where that family's Orazio comes from. 1829's Tavola opens at B with no A section at all, so neither surname married that year.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1851 Tavola annuale, entry 1, against the 1828 convention done	A direct test of a correction graded «inferred» that morning: were Filippo Arena, Domenica Costa, Giovanni Arlotta and Maria Costa alive when their children married in February 1851? The processetti bundle held no death act for any of them, which is an argument from absence.	CONFIRMED, AND BY A POSITIVE READING. Container LD6brxB, 96 images; the 1851 Tavola runs images 88-96 and ENTRY 1 IS «ARENA FRANCESCO e ARLOTTA SERAFINA», Scilla. Its parents column reads «FILIPPO, e COSTA DOMENICA» and «GIOVANNI e COSTA MARIA» -- both exactly right, and NEITHER CARRIES «FU». WHY THAT IS EVIDENCE AND NOT SILENCE. The same series marks the dead: the 1828 Tavola writes Giovanni Arlotta as son of «FU Dom.co e Barbaro Anna» -- father dead, mother living -- and «fu» appears on THIS PAGE of 1851 in other entries, including entry 4. The convention is in use locally and it is not applied to our four. THEY WERE ALL FOUR ALIVE IN FEBRUARY 1851. The morning's correction moves from «inferred» to «documented». AND THE INSTRUMENT IS BETTER THAN THIS ARCHIVE HAS BEEN TREATING IT. A Scilla marriage Tavola carries Num. d'ordine \| Sposi \| Patria \| PROFESSIONE \| GENITORI \| Giorno della Celebrazione. One index opening therefore gives four parents AND dates the life status of all four, without opening an act. Every year of the restaurazione series will do this. ONE CAUTION FOR WHOEVER USES IT. The date column is the CHURCH celebration, not the civil act -- in 1828 the Tavola says 7 September where the civil promise was 30 August. An act number and a Tavola date will disagree by days or weeks and neither is wrong. AND THE ROWS ARE NOT CLEANLY ALIGNED: in 1851 the parents are written slightly above their own line and interleave with the neighbouring entry, so a parent pair must be matched to a spouse BY NAME, not by height on the page. Entry 1's four lines were disentangled that way.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla marriage indexes 1810, 1811, 1812, 1818, 1819 swept for Filippo Arena part	FILIPPO ARENA x DOMENICA COSTA'S MARRIAGE, which is the only route left to GENERATION NINE on the Scilla side. He was twenty-five and she twenty-seven when their son Francesco was born on 25 November 1819, so they married about 1812-1819. Four volumes' indexes checked; two more have none.	TWO CLEAN NEGATIVES AND A COVERAGE MAP. 1819 (container 0AJEJ8b, 79 images, Tavola at 75-79): alphabetised by SURNAME. Its A section holds ONE entry -- «Abbate Grazia e Capitano Giovanna», 8 Febraro. NO ARENA. 1818 (container LPaGar8, 43 images, Tavola at 41-43): alphabetised by the GROOM'S GIVEN NAME, exactly as this archive's cautions warn. FILIPPO THEREFORE SITS UNDER F, NOT A, and the F section is entries 10-13: Francesco Migliarino x Antonia Fulco (21 Gennaro), Francesco Polimeni x Clementina Perina (26 Gennaro), FILIPPO PIZZARELLO x Francesca Fava (27 Gennaro), Francesco La Valle x Nicola Florio (10 Aprile). NO FILIPPO ARENA. Searching the A section of 1818 would have produced a confident, complete and entirely false negative. 1817 (container 5K9P9J9, 43 images) HAS NO TAVOLA AT ALL -- the volume runs to act 41 and then blank forms. 1816 (container wQYJYDb, 45 images) LIKEWISE: acts to 42, then blanks, and the archivist's card reads VOLUME TARLATO, worm-eaten. SO THE UNREAD GROUND IS: 1816 and 1817, which cost a full act-by-act read of about forty openings apiece because there is no index to shortcut; and the NAPOLEONIC years 1809-1815, whose containers have not been bought (arks in scilla-arks.tsv). Scilla's registers begin in 1809, not 1816, so those years exist. ALL FOUR CONTAINERS ARE NOW SAVED so no later session pays for them again. EXTENDED THE SAME DAY INTO THE NAPOLEONIC FONDO, AND THREE MORE YEARS FALL. 1812 (container wX9PERp, 23 images, Tavola at 22-23): SEVENTEEN marriages, alphabetised by the GROOM'S GIVEN NAME. All seventeen read. NO FILIPPO ARENA. 1811 (container wl1gvZD, 19 images, Tavola at 18-19): same ordering. Its F section is Ferdinando di Franco, Francesco Arbitrio and Fulcantonio Bova. NO FILIPPO ARENA. 1810 (container LzjyVKj, 18 images, INDICE at 17-18): same ordering. Its F section is Filippo LAGANA, Francesco Vita, Francesco Martello, Francesco Zirilli and a Francesco Fa[va]. THERE IS A FILIPPO AND HE IS A LAGANA. NO FILIPPO ARENA. 1809 (container LD6vJel, 29 images) HAS NO TAVOLA -- acts to 27, then blank forms. SO THE MARRIAGE IS NOT IN 1810, 1811, 1812, 1818 OR 1819, and the unindexed years left are 1809, 1813-1814, 1815, 1816 and 1817. ALL NINE CONTAINERS ARE NOW SAVED. AND THE SWEEP PAID FOR ITSELF SIDEWAYS. The 1811 Tavola gives «GIOVANNI VILARDI x CANDIDA COSTA -- Gaetano ed Antonia Mellica / ROCCO e PASQUALINA IDONE». Rocco Costa and Pasqualina Idone are MARIA COSTA'S PARENTS, read three hours earlier off the 1828 marriage act. SO CANDIDA COSTA IS MARIA COSTA'S SISTER, married at Scilla in 1811 -- a generation-seven sibling found for free, in an index opened for somebody else. FOUR MORE SCILLA HOUSEHOLDS NOTED IN PASSING, none of them joined to this family: CARLO ARENA x EUGENIA GRAJA, whose daughter Giovanna married Giovanni La Mussa in January 1812; a «fu ANTONIA ARENA» named as a mother in 1812; NATALINA ARENA, a mother in 1811; and ANNA ARLOTTA, a mother in 1811. Carlo Arena is of roughly the right generation to be Filippo Arena's father and there is NOTHING WHATEVER to support that beyond the surname and the town -- recorded so the next session does not rediscover him and think it has found something.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — the complete MAZZA set, two hundred items, written out done	NameSearch, all record categories, on MAZZA, read out at 200 to a page. Swept once before and summarised; this pass exists to write the family-plausible items down.	TWO HUNDRED ITEMS. Four are prisoner-of-war files for men born in Italy and captured in Africa, unconnected. Of the rest, these are the ones that touch this family. ANDREA MAZZA IS DATED AT LAST. NAA: BP4/3, ITALIAN MAZZA A: «Mazza, Andrea - Nationality: Italian - NATURALISATION CERTIFICATE GRANTED 27 NOVEMBER 1934», held at Brisbane. Row 106 has him only as a TIMBER CUTTER AT CARDWELL on the 1959 electoral roll, a lead a roll could not settle. He was naturalised in Queensland TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER, and naturalisation of that period wanted about five years' residence, so he was in Australia by about 1929. He is not a post-war arrival and not a stranger passing through. IT STILL DOES NOT MAKE HIM A RELATIVE -- the certificate names no parents -- but it turns a single roll line into a man with two dates. AND MARIO MAZZA WITH HIM: BP4/3, ITALIAN MAZZA M, naturalisation certificate granted 11 NOVEMBER 1927. That fits the Mario Mazza who married Peppina Mazzaglia in Queensland in 1924 and whose son Rosario was born there in 1925. WHAT HAPPENED TO ROSARIO MAZZA AFTER THE CAMP. NAA: J1737, MAZZA R: «Mazza Rosario, CAS 15000 - CIVIL ALIENS CORPS (CAC)», Brisbane, 1944, ACCESS OPEN. The Civil Aliens Corps is the labour corps internees were released into, and this archive had his internment dossier (MP1103/1, Q8110) and nothing after it. A service number, CAS 15000, and a file. OTHER FAMILY-PLAUSIBLE ITEMS. A261 1948/625: «Applicant - MAZZA Rosario; Nominee - PAGLIARO Carmela; PAGLIARO Loretta Donna Maria» -- Rosario sponsoring two women into Australia in 1948. J25 1962/1887: «Mazza, Giuseppe, Sebastiano, Stefano and Graziella», Brisbane. J25 1970/5500: «Applicant: Mazza, SEBASTIANO; Nominee: Napoli, Mario and wife Maria [NEE COCO]» -- and a Maria Mazza married a Rosario COCO in Queensland in 1939, so the Coco are in this circle twice. J25 1966/11584: «Mazza, Angelo; wife Francesca [nee Strano]; and child Giovanni» -- Angelo Mazza and Francesca Strano are already in the Queensland death index as Giovanni Mazza's parents. J25 1951/10120 and B78 ITALIAN/MAZZA SERAFINO GIOVANNI: Serafino Giovanni Mazza, arrived BRISBANE per SYDNEY 3 April 1952. BP145/1: Antonio Mazza, born 25 January 1935, arrived CAIRNS on the AURELIA, May 1956. BP25/1 ITALIAN SPATARO G: «Spataro [nee Mazza], Grazia», arrived Sydney on the Sebastiano Caboto 9 February 1951. A FINDING AID WORTH KNOWING: NAA BP628/5, «Name Index and registration cards for internees dossiers QUEENSLAND - MACAUDO to MYSLIM», 1939-1962, Brisbane, OPEN. That is the index to the Queensland internee dossiers, and MAZZA falls inside its range. TWO GUARDS. A12508 31/3204 is a DIFFERENT ROSARIO MAZZA, born 1 FEBRUARY 1877, arriving Melbourne per VIMINALE on 10 July 1939 -- twenty-two years older than this archive's Rosario and landing at the wrong port in the same decade. A12508 31/3203 is an IRIS MAZZA, born 4 December 1915, arriving Brisbane per ROMOLO on 26 December 1939. Neither is anybody here.
20 Sep 2026	NAA — the Crupi internment dossiers, and a Civil Aliens Corps hypothesis tested and failed done	A direct test of a hypothesis published an hour earlier: that the Crupi brothers, released from internment in late 1943, would have Civil Aliens Corps files in NAA series J1737 as Rosario Mazza does.	THE HYPOTHESIS IS WRONG. The complete CRUPI name index — 233 items, all read — contains NO J1737 ITEM, NO «Civil Aliens Corps» and NO CAS service number for any Crupi. Rosario Mazza has one; neither of his wife's brothers does. Recorded as a negative rather than quietly dropped, because it was published as a plan and somebody would otherwise look for it again. WHAT IT MIGHT MEAN is unresolved: the Corps was not universal, and men released in October and December 1943 may simply have gone home to the cane. BUT THE SEARCH ANSWERED A BETTER QUESTION. ANTONINO CRUPI'S INTERNMENT DOSSIER IS NAA: MP1103/1, Q7838 — «Prisoner of War/Internee: Crupi, Antonio; Date of birth - 05 November 1907», Melbourne, 1942-1943, ACCESS OPEN; with its companion MP1103/2, Q7838. AND THE NUMBER CLOSES THE LOOP: his ALIENS REGISTRATION CARD, read this morning, carries «Q. 7838» beside his name. Same man, two series, one number. The identification no longer rests on birthplace alone. MARIO CRUPI LIKEWISE: MP1103/2, Q30124 — «Crupi, Mario; Year of birth - 1905». His aliens card gives «N.B.E. certificate Q30124». Same closure. A CONFLICT TO FLAG, NOT TO RESOLVE. The card gives Antonino's date of birth as «5.10.07» — 5 OCTOBER 1907 in Australian order. The dossier catalogue says «05 NOVEMBER 1907». One month apart, both from Commonwealth paperwork about the same man. The dossier itself would settle it; neither figure is preferred here. AND A THIRD ANTONIO CRUPI, WHO IS NOT OURS. MP1103/1 and MP1103/2, PWV11028: «Crupi, Antonio; Date of birth - 10 January 1904», a VICTORIAN internee — the PWV prefix against our Q. That is now the THIRD man of that name this archive has had to set aside, after the Serrata card at barcode 9209609 and the Silkwood East farmer on the 1959 roll. FINDING AID: NAA BP628/5, «Name Index and registration cards for internees dossiers Queensland - CACCIOLA to CURSIO», 1939-1962, Brisbane, OPEN. CRUPI falls inside that range, as MAZZA falls inside MACAUDO-MYSLIM.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — ARENA is 1650 items; ROCCO ARENA is nineteen, and one of them is ours done	NameSearch on ARENA across all record categories, then narrowed to the given name ROCCO.	ARENA IS NOT SWEEPABLE BY SURNAME: 1,650 ITEMS. It is a common Sicilian and Calabrian name and it is also a place -- «Arena» is a comune in the province of Vibo Valentia, and a D4028 card in the results belongs to a MICHELE VARTULI born at «Arena Catongaro». Writing out 1,650 rows would be a waste and reading them for surnames would invent relatives. THE DISCRIMINATOR HAS TO BE A GIVEN NAME. ROCCO ARENA IS NINETEEN ITEMS AND EXACTLY ONE IS THIS FAMILY: NAA: J25 1971/3900, «Arena, Rocco; wife Angelina [or Angela] [nee Polistena]», Brisbane, 1953-1971. THAT IS HIS ONLY RECORD IN THE WHOLE NAME INDEX -- no aliens card, no naturalisation, no arrival item of his own. He landed in December 1953, after the wartime series closed and before the Commonwealth started keeping much else on assisted Italians, and the one file that names him names him as a husband. THE OTHER EIGHTEEN, AND THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST IS AN INTERNMENT. A ROCCO ARENA WAS INTERNED IN AUSTRALIA: MP1103/1 and MP1103/2, PWN9406, «Date of birth - 31 AUGUST 1909»; an Aliens Tribunal objection, A367 C18000/298, «Objection No. 35»; C329 42, the same objection; C123 4326 and C123 ITALIAN INTERNEES [Box 611], both Sydney 1940; and ST1233/1 N35192, «Rocco Arena [Interned] [Application for Naturalisation]». HE IS NOT THIS FAMILY AND THE ARITHMETIC IS ABSOLUTE: this archive's Rocco Arena ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA ON 27 DECEMBER 1953, thirteen years after that internment, and the Rocco Arena born at Scilla in 1861 DIED THERE ON 8 FEBRUARY 1932. Neither could have been in a Sydney camp in 1940. THIS ARCHIVE HAS JUST DOCUMENTED THREE INTERNED MEN IN THIS FAMILY, and a fourth of the right surname would be seized on. It is not one. THE REST, SO NOBODY RE-EXCLUDES THEM ONE BY ONE. A714 42/15084: Rocco Arena naturalised 25 June 1946, BORN GANZIRRI (Messina) 1907, resident Rose Bay NSW. SP11/5: arrived Sydney per REGINA D'ITALIA 3 October 1925. SP908/1 ITALIAN/ARENA ROCCO [1]: born 14 August 1942, arrived Sydney per ROMA 4 January 1963. SP908/1 [2]: born 6 September 1933, arrived Sydney per NEPTUNIA 3 October 1960. A435 1945/4/2718: born 3 February 1907. D4881: arrived Melbourne per GUGLIELMO MARCONI 2 March 1964, file at Adelaide. A1870 ARENA R: arrived Sydney per G MARCONI 13 May 1964. D400 SA1960/8987, D1915 SA17497, C3198 Z08102302J, B44 V1970/2215: South Australian, Sydney and Melbourne files without dates in their titles. SEVEN DISTINCT MEN AT LEAST, ON FIVE DIFFERENT BIRTH DATES, IN FIVE STATES. The surname plus the given name is still not an identification here; the arrival date is.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, the birth Tavole of 1834, 1835 and 1836, P sections read complete done	CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA'S BIRTH. His son Giovanni's birth act of September 1883 makes him FORTY-EIGHT, so born about 1835, and his death act of 1924 names his parents GIUSEPPE POLISTENA and ANNA PONTILLO. Three years read across, not sampled -- 1834, 1835 and 1836 -- with the complete P section of each annual Tavola.	HE IS NOT IN ANY OF THEM, AND THE SHAPE OF THE ABSENCE IS THE FINDING. 1834 (container wR8Jg9p, 114 images, Tavola 107-114, 201 births): the P section is entries 140-164 and holds Paladino, Patafio, Piria, Parisi, Papalia, Boscaro, Pirrotta, Pizzarello, Poleo. NOT ONE POLISTENA. 1835 (container wbb2o4g, 136 images, Tavola 130-136, 206 births): P is entries 137-153 -- Paladino, Parenti, Prini, Pirrotta, Parisi, Panella, Priocca, Papalia, Patafio, Pugliese. NOT ONE POLISTENA. 1836 (container w6rZ7KQ, 126 images, Tavola 119-126, 222 births): P is entries 167-192 and holds EXACTLY ONE -- entry 191, «POLISTINA ANNUNZIATA, di GIUSEPPE e MARTELLO ANNA, 2 Dicembre». THREE YEARS, 629 BIRTHS, ONE POLISTENA. The P section at Scilla in the 1830s is Paladino and Pirrotta and Patafio; the Polistena are barely there. THIS BEARS ON THE WHOLE QUARTER: the Polistena may be incomers to Scilla rather than an old family of it, which would explain why this archive has never been able to push them above Camillo Antonio. AND THE ONE ENTRY IS A LEAD WITH A FLAW. «Giuseppe e Martello Anna» has the right two given names for Camillo Antonio's parents -- GIUSEPPE and ANNA -- and THE WRONG SURNAME for the mother: the death act of 1924 says ANNA PONTILLO. Either that index line is wrong, or the death act is, or these are two different couples. THE TAVOLA IS A FINDING AID AND THIS ARCHIVE HAS BEEN CAUGHT BY ONE BEFORE -- the 1854 index that called Serafina Arlotta «Rosa» and briefly turned a brother into a cousin. ACT 191 OF 1836 WOULD SETTLE IT and it is three images away. WORTH NOTING IN PASSING: 1836 entry 168 is «PONTILLO GIOVANNI, di Gius.e e Paladino Gius.a» -- a Pontillo household at Scilla with a Giuseppe at its head, in the same year and the same section. Pontillo and Polistena sitting four entries apart is exactly the circumstance in which a clerk writes one for the other. READ THE SAME HOUR, AND IT IS ACT 204, NOT 191 -- the Tavola's «Num. d'ordine» is an INDEX ROW and that index carries no act number at all; act 191 is a Squillaci birth at Solano. ACT 204: 2 DECEMBER 1836, the midwife TERESA ARENA declaring a girl born that morning to ANNA PONTILLO, 35, wife of GIUSEPPE POLISTINA, 38, MARINARO, named ANNUNZIATA. THE INDEX WAS WRONG AND THE DEATH ACT WAS RIGHT: the mother is PONTILLO, and ANNUNZIATA IS CAMILLO ANTONIO'S SISTER. It also dates Giuseppe Polistena to about 1798 and Anna Pontillo to about 1801, and gives the Polistena a trade -- MARINARO. NEXT: then widen to 1830-1833 and 1837-1840, since a declared age is a range and this archive has already been burned reading three points inside a window as a search of the window.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla births 1830–1840, ELEVEN consecutive P sections read for Camillo Antonio Polistena done	ELEVEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS, read across and not sampled: the complete P section of the annual birth Tavola for every year from 1830 to 1840. His son's 1883 birth act makes him forty-eight, so born about 1835, and his death act of 1924 names his parents GIUSEPPE POLISTENA and ANNA PONTILLO.	HE IS IN NONE OF THE ELEVEN, AND THE ELEVEN MAP THE WHOLE SURNAME AT SCILLA. Every Polistena birth in those years, with parents: 1830 -- POLISTINA ANTONINO, di LUIGI e MARIANNA BAVIERA, 23 Febbraio; POLISTINA SALVADORE, di FRANCESCO e GIUSEPPA LONGARDO, 9 Maggio. 1831 -- POLISTINA FRANCESCO ANTONIO, di LUIGI e GIOVANNA BAVIERA, 21 Giugno. 1832 -- POLISTINA DOMENICA, di FRANCESCO e GIUSEPPA LONGORDO, 17 Dicembre. 1833 -- POLISTINA ROCCO, DI GIUSEPPE E PONTILLO ANNA, 13 Dicembre. 1834, 1835 -- NONE. 1836 -- POLISTINA ANNUNZIATA, DI GIUSEPPE E ANNA PONTILLO, 2 Dicembre (atto 204, read in full; the Tavola misnames the mother MARTELLO). 1837, 1838 -- NONE. 1839 -- POLISTINA MARIA, di FRANCESCO e GIUSEPPA LONGARDO, 30 Maggio. 1840 -- POLISTINA FORTUNATA, DI GIUSEPPE E PONTILLO ANNA, 28 Gennaro. THREE HOUSEHOLDS, EIGHT BIRTHS, ELEVEN YEARS, ABOUT 2,100 CHILDREN. Giuseppe x Anna Pontillo (this archive's couple): Rocco 1833, Annunziata 1836, FORTUNATA 1840. Francesco x Giuseppa Longardo: Salvadore 1830, Domenica 1832, Maria 1839. Luigi x Marianna/Giovanna Baviera: Antonino 1830, Francesco Antonio 1831. AND THE SPACING IS THE ARGUMENT. This archive's couple have children in DECEMBER 1833, DECEMBER 1836 and JANUARY 1840 -- three years apart, twice over, with nothing before or between. 1830, 1831 and 1832 are read and hold no child of theirs, so ROCCO IS THE ELDEST and Camillo Antonio CANNOT be earlier. HE MUST BE 1841 OR LATER. THE NAMING CUSTOM AGREES. A first son takes the father's father's name, so Giuseppe's father was a ROCCO POLISTENA; a later son takes the mother's father's, which would make CAMILLO ANTONIO a namesake of a CAMILLO PONTILLO. Both point the search forward, not back. SO «FORTY-EIGHT» IN SEPTEMBER 1883 IS WRONG BY AT LEAST SIX YEARS. Anna Pontillo was about thirty-five in 1836, so she could bear children to about 1846. THE WINDOW IS NOW 1841-1848, and no container for any of those years has been bought. ONE FREE CORROBORATION IN PASSING: the 1830 A section, entry 2, reads «ARLOTTA SERAFINA -- GIOVANNI, e COSTA MARIA -- 13 Giugno». That is Rocco Arena's mother, her date and both parents, confirming from the index what atto 89 of 1830 says in the act -- and confirming again that the «atto 2» this archive cited for years was a Tavola row number.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla births 1841–1843, the window after the eleven-year sweep part	CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA, continued forward. The eleven years 1830-1840 showed his parents' children falling three years apart with no room for him in front, so the window moved to 1841-1848. Complete P sections read for 1841 and 1842.	TWO MORE YEARS CLEAR, A FOURTH HOUSEHOLD, AND A TRAP WORTH MORE THAN EITHER. 1841 (container 03bBOvJ, 124 images, Tavola 116-124, 218 births): the P block is entries 151-171 and holds Pontillo, Prini, Pirrotta, Bova, Paini, Patafio, Palmisano, Paladino, Pizzarello, Papalia, Piria, Porospero. NO POLISTENA AT ALL. 1842 (container 58rKdQN, 127 images, Tavola 120-127, 222 births): the P block is entries 144-173 and holds EXACTLY ONE -- entry 145, «POLISTINA SALVADORE, di DOM.co e COSTA CATERINA, 12 Gennaro». That is a FOURTH Polistena household: DOMENICO POLISTINA and CATERINA COSTA. Not Giuseppe and Anna Pontillo. THE TRAP IS IN 1841, ENTRY 160: «PALMISANO GIO. BATTISTA -- GIUSEPPE e ANNA PONTILLO -- 26 Agosto». A GIUSEPPE MARRIED TO AN ANNA PONTILLO, in the right town in the right decade, four letters away from GIUSEPPE POLISTENA and ANNA PONTILLO -- and the surname is PALMISANO. Anybody scanning the parents column of these Tavole for «Giuseppe e Anna Pontillo» would stop here and be wrong. It is either a second Anna Pontillo or the same woman in a second marriage, and nothing here decides which. THE DISCRIMINATOR IS THE CHILD'S SURNAME, which is the one column a parent-scan skips. 1843 IS A DOUBLED YEAR AND THE INDEX IS IN THE OTHER ARK. an_ua2002874 (container wr9redO, 107 images) holds the acts and closes at act 200 with the sindaco's statement and NO TAVOLA. The second ark, an_ua2002877, is where the INDICE will be -- the same split this archive already met in 1852 and 1875. ITS CONTAINER IS NOT BOUGHT: the lookup returned «403 Forbidden», caught by the control test and recorded as a block, not as a missing register. STILL TO READ: 1843 (needs the second ark's container), 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848. Containers for 1841, 1842 and 1843's act volume are saved.
20 Sep 2026	Trove — attempted and BLOCKED BY THE TOOL, not by the archive wall	Row 79: sweep Trove's newspaper and gazette holdings for all ten surnames, chasing naturalisation notices, which give a date, a street address and a former nationality.	NOT DONE, AND THE REASON IS WORTH RECORDING PRECISELY BECAUSE IT IS NOT A NEGATIVE. Trove's search page LOADS and ACCEPTS the query -- it echoes «l-artType: newspapers / All of these words: Prostamo» back onto the page -- and then NEVER RENDERS A RESULT LIST. No count, no articles, no empty-state message. THE CONSOLE SAYS WHY: «TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'clear')» thrown twice from Trove's own vendor bundle, chunk-vendors.af8ce3cc.js. That is a STORAGE OR CACHE API the browser pane does not provide, and the single-page app dies on it before it paints results. IT IS A TOOLING INCOMPATIBILITY, NOT A BLOCK AND NOT AN ABSENCE. Recording it as «wall» rather than as zero results, because a searcher meeting a blank Trove page could very easily write down «nothing for Prostamo in Australian newspapers», which would be false -- Trove has ALREADY given this archive Brisbane Prostamo naturalisations and Maria Assunta's gazettal of 4 July 1966 at 3 Frank Street, Graceville, both found by other means. THE TWO WAYS ROUND, NEITHER OF WHICH NEEDS ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT THE SPA. (1) THE TROVE API v3: free, keyed, api.trove.nla.gov.au, and it returns JSON that needs no JavaScript at all -- a key is requested from the NLA in a few minutes and is the right long-term answer for a ten-surname sweep. (2) DAVID'S OWN BROWSER, where the page works.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1833 atto 174, read in the original done	Rocco Polistina's birth act, to confirm the 1833 Tavola line and get his parents' ages from a second independent document. Found by date, since that index carries no act number: three probes bracketing 13 December.	READ, AND IT DOES THREE THINGS. ONE, IT CONFIRMS THE PARENTS FROM A SECOND ACT. GIUSEPPE POLISTINA, THIRTY-FOUR, MARINARO, and ANNA PONTILLO, THIRTY-THREE, in December 1833; against thirty-eight and thirty-five in December 1836. Three years of register, four and two of declared age -- the ordinary slop of this register, and both acts land on Giuseppe born 1798-99 and Anna born 1800-01. No conflict. TWO, THE SAME MIDWIFE DELIVERED BOTH CHILDREN. TERESA ARENA, thirty-eight here and forty-four in 1836, LEVATRICE, declared both births in person and produced the witnesses at both. THREE, AND IT IS THE ONE WORTH CARRYING: THE MARGIN CARRIES A MARRIAGE ADDED THIRTY-SIX YEARS LATER. «L'anno 1869, il giorno 12 Luglio -- il sottoscritto Uffiziale dello Stato Civile dichiara che ROCCO POLISTINA, cui ha rapporto il contro scritto atto di nascita, HA CONTRATTO MATRIMONIO IN QUESTO COMUNE CON COLORINA BRI[...] nel giorno 12 andante mese ed anno. L'Uffiziale G. Zagari. Reggio 26 Agosto 1869.» So he lived to thirty-five and married at Scilla on 12 JULY 1869. The bride's surname is cut by the binding and her forename reads COLORINA or COLOMBA; recorded as read and flagged, because the 1869 marriage act will give it plainly and this archive has been burned by a name guessed off an index before. THE METHOD POINT: SCILLA'S RESTAURAZIONE BIRTH ACTS CARRY MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS ADDED DECADES LATER, and this archive has never looked at one. A birth act is not only a birth. Camillo Antonio Polistena's own act, when it is found, may carry his marriage in the same hand -- and so may the Arena and Arlotta birth acts already read, whose margins nobody has examined.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — three Scilla birth-act MARGINS read, and the annotation rule calibrated done	Row 154, opened an hour earlier: Scilla birth acts carry marginal annotations added decades later, and this archive had never looked at one. Three margins tested -- Rocco Polistina 1833, Serafina Arlotta 1830, Filippo Arena 1852 -- on containers already bought.	ONE ANNOTATED, TWO BLANK, AND THE RULE IS NARROWER THAN IT LOOKED. ROCCO POLISTINA, Nati 1833 atto 174: margin carries his marriage AT SCILLA on 12 JULY 1869, signed and dated from Reggio six weeks later. SERAFINA ARLOTTA, Nati 1830 atto 89: MARGIN EMPTY. She married at Scilla on 7 February 1851. FILIPPO ARENA, Nati 1852 atto 48: MARGIN EMPTY. Any marriage of his would fall after 1866. THE READING THAT FITS ALL THREE: the annotation is an ITALIAN-ERA habit, absent from an 1851 marriage and present on an 1869 one, AND it is written only when the later act is registered in the SAME COMUNE -- the note says «ha contratto matrimonio IN QUESTO COMUNE» in so many words. SO A BLANK MARGIN IS WEAK EVIDENCE. For a pre-1866 marriage it means nothing whatever. For a post-1866 one it is consistent with a marriage somewhere else -- which for Filippo Arena is the reading the rest of the evidence already supports. TWO ACTS READ IN THE REGISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A BY-PRODUCT. NATI 1830 ATTO 89 confirms that the certified copy bound into the 1851 processetti is FAITHFUL word for word -- worth knowing, since a Pizzo extract once lost ten years off a man's age. NATI 1852 ATTO 48, Filippo Arena's birth, carried here until today off the Tavola alone: 14 FEBRUARY 1852, before GAETANO FERRANTE, sindaco; ANTONIO ARENA, di anni TRENTASEI, MARINARO, and SERAFINA ARLOTTA, di anni VENTOTTO; witnesses ROCCO PIZZARELLO, 30, FERRARO, and TOMMASO CARDONA, 30, FALEGNAME; THE DECLARANT COULD NOT WRITE. AND ITS AGES ARE THE WORST THIS ARCHIVE HAS SEEN IN ONE LINE: he was thirty-two and she was twenty-one. FOUR YEARS AND SEVEN YEARS OUT. Two years later the same couple are entered as thirty-four and twenty-two, which fits. The clerk guessed. This is now the act to point at whenever a declared age is about to identify somebody.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1853 atto 53 and the margins of 1852-1853, read in the original done	Row 154: check the margins of Scilla birth acts already fetched. Started with «Domenico Arena, Nati 1853 atto 2», one of the three brothers who vanish after 1898.	THE MARGIN WAS THE SMALL FIND. THE ACT WAS THE BIG ONE. ACT 2 OF 1853 IS NOT HIM. It is DOMENICA BELLANTONI, born 4 January to Maria Bellantoni, filatrice, twenty-nine, who acknowledged her as her natural daughter. «2» was a TAVOLA ROW NUMBER -- the second entry in the A block -- exactly as Serafina Arlotta's «atto 2» of 1830 turned out to be act 89 earlier today. Both are «atto 2» because a surname-ordered A block puts Arena and Arlotta second. THE REAL ACT IS 53, FOUND BY DATE IN FOUR PROBES -- and it says the child is a GIRL. «FRANCESCANTONIO ARENA, DI ANNI TRENTADUE, MARINARO ... ci à presentato UNA FEMINA ... nata da SERAFINA ARLOTTA, sua moglie legittima, DI ANNI VENTIDUE ... di dare alla FANCIULLA il nome di DOMENICA», and the Indicazione column records the baptism of DOMENICA ARENA. THREE STATEMENTS IN ONE ACT. SO ROCCO ARENA'S «BROTHER DOMENICO» IS HIS SISTER DOMENICA, and this archive carried her as a son for fourteen weeks without opening the act. AND THE AGES IN THIS ACT ARE EXACT -- thirty-two and twenty-two, both landing on the known birth dates -- fourteen months after the 1852 act made the same couple thirty-six and twenty-eight. Individual acts are right or wrong; the register is not drifting. THE MARGINS, WITH A CONTROL THIS TIME. 1852 act 55: «Atto 18 Febbraio 1881 N. 11 -- SCARFONE ROCCO contrasse matrimonio in Scilla con VITA MARIA». 1853 act 54: a marriage of 20 December 1876. 1853 act 55: «PALADINO SANTA contrasse matrimonio in Scilla», 8 September 1883. SO THE PRACTICE IS LIVE IN BOTH VOLUMES -- and FILIPPO ARENA'S MARGIN (1852 act 48) IS EMPTY. That upgrades an hour-old grading: a blank margin here is evidence, not nothing. HE DID NOT MARRY AT SCILLA. ONE CORRECTION OF MY OWN, MADE AND THEN UNMADE WITHIN THE HOUR: I first took writing at the right edge of the 1852 act-48 opening for act 49's margin. It is act 49's BAPTISM column. The control had to be run properly on a different opening before the blank meant anything.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1860 atto 45, and the annotation inference disproved correction	Row 154 continued: Giuseppe Arena's birth act, one of the two brothers who vanish after 1898, and a man KNOWN to have married at Scilla on 12 September 1885. A control case for the annotation rule, chosen because the answer was already known.	THE CONTROL FAILS THE RULE, AND THE RULE IS WITHDRAWN. Act 45 of 1860 is Giuseppe Arena's birth -- the Tavola number is the act number here, unlike 1830 and 1853 -- declared 6 MARCH 1860 by the midwife GIUSEPPA DE GIROLAMO, twenty-three, for a boy born the fifth at ten o'clock to SERAFINA ARLOTTA, twenty-nine, and FRANCESCO ANTONIO ARENA, marinaro. The date matches this archive exactly and Serafina's age is exact. AND THE ANNOTATION BOX IS EMPTY. GIUSEPPE ARENA MARRIED MARIA MARTELLO AT SCILLA ON 12 SEPTEMBER 1885 -- act 73, read here in the original -- and nothing was ever written back into his birth act. So a blank box does NOT mean a man did not marry in the comune, and the inference drawn against FILIPPO ARENA an hour earlier is withdrawn in full. Filippo's blank margin now means nothing at all. WHAT SURVIVES OF ROW 154: a PRESENT annotation is still free evidence -- Rocco Polistina's marriage of 12 July 1869 came that way, and marriages of 1876, 1881 and 1883 sit on other acts. IT IS A BONUS WHEN IT IS THERE AND SILENCE WHEN IT IS NOT. AND THE BOX MOVES BETWEEN VOLUMES. 1852 and 1853 use a LEFT column headed «MARGINE per scriversi alcune notizie riguardanti gli atti di Nascita». 1860 uses a RIGHT box headed «MENZIONI prescritte dagli articoli 64, 65 e 106, LL. CC.». Same purpose, opposite side of the page. Anybody reporting «the margin is blank» must say which side they looked at. ONE MORE CAUTION SOFTENED: this archive records that when a LEVATRICE declares, the act gives the parents WITHOUT ages. Here a levatrice declared and both ages are given. A tendency, not a rule.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla births 1843, 1844 and 1845, completing the window round Camillo Antonio Polistena part	Three more P sections after the eleven-year sweep of 1830-1840 and the 1841-1842 pass. With these, the Scilla birth index has been read for SIXTEEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS, 1830 to 1845.	HE IS IN NONE OF THEM, AND HIS PARENTS' CHILDBEARING AT SCILLA IS NOW BOUNDED. 1843 (container LD6b47G -- the SECOND ark of a doubled year; an_ua2002874 holds the acts and closes at act 200 with no index, an_ua2002877 carries the Tavola at images 16-21, badly soiled): the P block holds Pizzarello, Papalia, Paladino, Princi, Patafio, Pirrotta, Perina, Piccone, Porchi, Pontillo, Poleo. NO POLISTINA AS A CHILD. One as a MOTHER, for the third time: «Pirrotta Antonia -- Rocco e POLISTINA ANNUNZIATA». 1844 (container LNolOVK, 111 images, Tavola 104-111, 192 births): TWO Polistina, entries 131 and 133 -- «POLISTINA ROCCO, di DOM.co e COSTA CAROLINA» and «POLISTINA GIUSEPPE, di FRAN.co e LONGORDO GIUSEPPA». Both are the OTHER households. Neither is Giuseppe x Anna Pontillo. 1845 (container 5gGp2Rz, 120 images, Tavola 114-120, 210 births): PARTIAL. The P block runs entries 145-170 and SEVEN OF THE EIGHTEEN LINES ARE TOO FAINT TO READ -- 145, 147, 150, 151, 153, 154 and 157. No Polistina among the legible ones, but that is NOT a clean negative and is not recorded as one. The volume needs a second look at higher contrast. SO THE SHAPE OF THE FAMILY IS NOW FIXED. GIUSEPPE POLISTENA and ANNA PONTILLO have children at Scilla in DECEMBER 1833, DECEMBER 1836 and JANUARY 1840 -- and in the twelve other years read, NOTHING. Anna was about thirty-five in 1836, so her childbearing plausibly ends around 1840-42, which is exactly what the register shows. AND THAT LEAVES A CONTRADICTION THIS ARCHIVE SHOULD STATE RATHER THAN SMOOTH. Camillo Antonio Polistena's death act of 1924 names these two as his parents. His son's birth act of 1883 makes him forty-eight. THERE IS NO YEAR IN THEIR CHILDBEARING WINDOW WHERE HE FITS, AND THE WINDOW HAS BEEN READ ACROSS. Four readings, none preferred here: (1) he was born somewhere else and the family came to Scilla; (2) the 1924 death act's parents are wrong; (3) the Tavola omitted him -- these indexes DO drop entries, and 1898's death index carries an Arena with no act number at all; (4) he is one of the children already found under a name this archive has not connected. THE TEST THAT WOULD SEPARATE THEM is his MARRIAGE act to Giovanna Romano, about 1870-1880, which would give his age a third time and his birthplace outright. Scilla's Italian-era marriages 1866-1913 are all on Antenati and the series is already listed in scilla-arks-italiano.tsv.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla marriages 1874-1882 swept for Camillo Antonio Polistena part	Row 155: the marriage act of CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTENA and GIOVANNA ROMANO, which would give his age a third time and -- decisively -- his BIRTHPLACE, after sixteen years of the birth register failed to hold him. Window about 1870-1882; started in the middle.	1876 IS CLEAR AND 1875 HAS NO INDEX. 1876 (container 5Yb6QBv, 40 images): carries an «INDICE ANNUALE per gli Atti di Matrimonio» at images 38-40, and it is a GOOD format -- every spouse listed alphabetically, the two halves of each couple BRACED TOGETHER against one register number, so a single reading gives both names and the act. The P range holds PIRROTTA Antonio x Lofaro Francesca (16), PATAFIO Pasquale x De Franco Santa (19), PALADINO Mariano x Martello Carmela (33), PALADINO Domenico x Patane Francesca Luisa (35), PALADINO Rocco x Paladino Mariangela (36) and PIEMI Giovambattista x Morabito Antonia Maria (2). NO POLISTENA. 1875 (container wOWX61r, 43 images) HAS NO TAVOLA AT ALL -- the volume runs out in blank forms and a printed PARTE II title page. There is only ONE ark for each Italian-era marriage year at Scilla, so there is no second volume carrying the index: 1875 must be read act by act, about forty openings. SO THE INDEXES ARE NOT UNIFORM ACROSS THIS SERIES EITHER. 1876 and 1877 have them; 1875 does not. Check the tail before promising a year. STILL TO READ: 1870-1874, 1875 (by acts), 1877-1882. Containers are saved for 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877; the rest are not bought. 1874 AND 1877 ADDED, AND BOTH ARE CLEAR. 1874 (container 0ZqNyyB, 39 images) carries an INDICE ANNUALE at images 36-39. Its P section is PARISI Giovanni x Parisi Maria (11), PIZZARELLO Gaetano x Ribuffo Rosaria (24), PIRIA Antonio x Morabito Serafina (27), PIZZARELLO Santo x Papalia Giuseppa (59), PIRROTTA Michelangelo x Princi Giuseppa (61) and PATAFIO Carlo x Sicari Giovanna (63). NO POLISTENA. 1877 (container Lo4xOVN, 46 images, index at 44-46): PATAFIO Antonino x Morabito Antonia (23), PALADINO Vincenzo x Caratozzolo Domenica (38), PANUCCIO Pietro x ARLOTTA MARIA CONCETTA (44), PIRROTTA Carmine x Morabito Maria (46), PAPALIA Pasquale x Cotroneo Filomena (49) and PARISI Rocco x Ciccone Maria (63). NO POLISTENA. NOTED IN PASSING AND NOT JOINED: act 44 of 1877 marries an ARLOTTA MARIA CONCETTA to Pietro Panuccio. Serafina Arlotta's known siblings are Anna, Domenico and Giuseppe Antonio; a Maria Concetta is not among them, and nothing here makes her one. SO FOUR YEARS ARE DONE: 1874, 1876 and 1877 read and CLEAR; 1875 has no index and must be read act by act. THE INDEX FORMAT IS THE SAME GOOD ONE IN ALL THREE -- every spouse alphabetical, the two halves of each couple BRACED against one register number -- so a year costs ONE crop once the container is in hand. LEFT: 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873 (containers not bought), 1875 (by acts), 1878-1882 (not bought). 1879 AND 1880 ADDED, BOTH CLEAR, AND THE SWEEP IS NOW FIVE YEARS DEEP. 1879 (container LzmZQnm, 38 images, Indice Annuale at 37-38): P is PROCOPIO Giuseppe x Galte Giovanna (38), PAPALIA Antonio x Papalia Anna Maria (2), PAPALIA Pasquale x Ciccone Carmena (5), PALADINI Davide x Paladino Mariantonia (46), PAPALIA Domenico x Papalia Angela (52), PALADINO Vittoria x Melidoni Gaetano (49) and PRIGANDE Bruno x Legato Domenica (3). NO POLISTENA. 1880 (container w6zPDGm, 31 images, Indice at 30-31): P is PASPIGLIA Giorgio x Lagana Pasqualina (8), PIRIA Giuseppe x Macri Angela (20), PIRROTTA Francesco x Bova Giuseppa (22), PALADINO Francesco Rocco x Giordano Grazia (28), PATAFIO Antonino x Patafio Maria (30), PAPALIA Pasquale x Bueti Angela (34) and PAPALIA Antonino x Papalia Petrucia (44). NO POLISTENA. 1878's container lookup returned a 403 and was not retried; the ark is an_ua16594991. THREE THINGS NOTED AND DELIBERATELY NOT JOINED. 1879 act 22: ARLOTTA GIUSEPPE marries -- the first entry in that year's index. Serafina Arlotta's brother GIUSEPPE ANTONIO ARLOTTA is recorded here as the husband of Angela Nunziata Pizzarello, and the bride's name in this index is not obviously hers, so the act is wanted before anything is claimed. 1879 act 8: RUSSO GIOVANNI x ARENA FORTUNATA -- the Russo-Arena pairing again, six years before Giovanni Arena married Concetta Russo. 1880 act 40: RIGANATI ANTONIO x ARENA TERESA -- and the Teresa Arena this archive holds, Orazio's daughter born 1853, died in 1913 as the wife of PIETRO BOVA. Either a different woman or a first marriage; nothing here decides it. SO: 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879 and 1880 READ AND CLEAR. 1875 has no index. 1878 not bought. Left: 1870-1873, 1878, 1881, 1882. 1878 AND 1882 ADDED, AND 1882 IS THE FIRST YEAR THE SURNAME APPEARS AT ALL. 1878 (container 5Yb6Q2v, 29 images, Indice at 27-29, badly water-stained but legible): P is PALADINO Cesare x Bova Antonia (7), PORPIGLIA Giuseppe x Pirrotta Rosaria (13), PALERMO Paolo x Pirrotta Annunziata (29), PIZZARELLO Giuseppe x Ida Maria (35), and Martello Domenico x PATAFIO Serafina (38). NO POLISTENA. 1882 (container wErAXdW, 40 images, Indice at 39-40): TWO POLISTINA, AND NEITHER IS HIM. «POLISTINA GIUSEPPE x ZAGARI GIOVANNA» -- the register number reads 5 or 57 and is not certain at this resolution -- and «POLISTINA LUIGI CARMELO x MATRA NUNZIATA», act 48. THAT IS WORTH MORE THAN A NEGATIVE. Seven years of this index have now been read and 1882 is the FIRST to hold the surname at all -- so the Polistena were marrying at Scilla by 1882, and the earlier silence is not an artefact of the index. AND «LUIGI CARMELO» IS A NAME THIS ARCHIVE HAS MET: the 1831 birth Tavola gives «Polistina Francesco Antonio, di LUIGI e Giovanna Baviera», the third of the four Scilla Polistena households. A Luigi Carmelo marrying in 1882 fits that line as a son or grandson and fits nothing here. SO: 1874, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880 and 1882 READ. 1875 has no index. 1881's container lookup returned 403 twice and is not bought. Left: 1870-1873, 1881, and 1875 by acts. THE TWO 1882 ACTS ARE WORTH OPENING ANYWAY -- a Scilla marriage act of that date gives both spouses' ages, BOTH BIRTHPLACES and all four parents, so either one would say whether the Polistena of Scilla were born there or came in, which is the question row 137 could not answer from sixteen years of births. NAVIGATION NOTE FOR THE 1882 VOLUME, BOUGHT WITH FOUR WASTED PROBES. Container wErAXdW, 40 images. IT IS SPLIT INTO TWO SERIES AND BOTH ARE NUMBERED FROM ONE. Image 33 carries a margin reading «Numero 4 -- Colosi Giuseppe Luigi Vincenzo / Zagari Giuseppa Maria Raffaela», which is PARTE II act 4, not parte I act 4 -- parte II begins around image 31 and is the register of marriages celebrated elsewhere and transcribed here. The INDICE at images 39-40 gives a «Numero di Registro» WITHOUT SAYING WHICH PART, so an index number cannot be resolved to an image without checking both series. Several images in the thirties are BLANK VERSOS showing only bleed-through. THE CHEAP WAY IN, FOR WHOEVER CONTINUES: every act carries a MARGIN LABEL giving its number and BOTH SPOUSES' NAMES, so a montage of the narrow left margin strip across a run of images identifies every act in the volume without reading a single act body. That is the same trick that worked on the 1874 marriage volume and it should have been used here first.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1881 atto 4: Camillo Antonio Polistena x Giovanna Romano, FOUND done	Row 155, closed. Eight years of the Scilla marriage index read; 1881's Indice Annuale gave the entry and the margin-strip montage gave the image in two calls.	FOUND. SCILLA, MATRIMONI 1881, ATTO 4 -- 23 JANUARY 1881 at six seventeen in the evening. POLISTINA CAMILLO ANTONIO, DI ANNI TRENTASEI, MARINARO, NATO IN QUESTO COMUNE, figlio del FU GIUSEPPE e della FU ANNA PONTILLO. ROMANO GIOVANNA, DI ANNI VENTISEI, FILATRICE, NATA IN QUESTO COMUNE, figlia di ANNUNZIATO e di ANGELA ZIRILLI, both living. THE AGE IS THE FINDING. THIRTY-SIX in January 1881 is a birth about 1844 -- and his son's birth act of September 1883 makes him FORTY-EIGHT, a birth about 1835. NINE YEARS APART. The 1835 figure is what this archive swept eleven years of birth Tavole around, and the answer was never in them. THE MARRIAGE ACT IS PREFERRED, on the rule this archive has already applied to Giovanni Arlotta and Maria Costa: a man appearing in person to marry, with the parish papers checked, against a father registering a newborn in the evening. HE WAS BORN AT SCILLA -- «nato in questo Comune» -- so the birth act EXISTS and the sixteen-year sweep missed it. AND 1844 IS INSIDE THAT SWEEP: the 1844 P block was read for entries 127-138 WITHOUT ESTABLISHING WHERE THE BLOCK ENDS, and 1845 is on record as PARTIAL with seven of eighteen lines too faint. Those two years are now the shortest road left, and they are years already paid for. THREE MORE THINGS THE ACT GIVES. GIUSEPPE POLISTENA AND ANNA PONTILLO WERE BOTH DEAD BY JANUARY 1881 -- the first bound either has had, against their last sighting alive in January 1840. The parentage is confirmed from a SECOND document, forty-three years before the 1924 death act. And GIOVANNA ROMANO is dated -- twenty-six, born at Scilla about 1854 -- with ANNUNZIATO ROMANO and ANGELA ZIRILLI both alive, which is the FOURTH record to call her a Romano and the first in which she is the subject. METHOD: the margin-strip montage found the act in two calls. Images 2-7 carry acts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 in the left margin with BOTH SPOUSES' NAMES, so act 4 is the right-hand act of image 3. The same trick that had been written down, ignored, and then vindicated on the 1882 volume an hour earlier.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Nati 1844 Tavola entry 142: Camillo Antonio Polistena's birth, FOUND done	Row 137, closed. His marriage act of January 1881 made him thirty-six, pointing at 1844 -- a year already read and recorded as clear. It was not clear; the reading was.	HE IS AT ENTRY 142 OF THE 1844 TAVOLA: «POLISTINA CAMILLO -- GIUSEPPE e PONTILLO ANNA -- 21 SETTEMBRE». BORN AT SCILLA ON 21 SEPTEMBER 1844. THE ARITHMETIC IS EXACT, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES IT SAFE. He was THIRTY-SIX YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS at his marriage on 23 January 1881, and the act says «trentasei». He was THIRTY-EIGHT AND ELEVEN MONTHS at his son's birth on 16 September 1883, and that act says FORTY-EIGHT -- ten years wrong, and the figure this archive searched around for sixteen years. AND THE REASON IT TOOK SO LONG IS MINE. The 1844 P block was read EARLIER THE SAME DAY. The crop covered entries 127 to 138 and stopped; the row was written saying that the end of the block had not been established, and then 1845, 1830-1832 and five marriage years were swept instead of spending one more crop on the year already open. HE IS FOUR ENTRIES PAST WHERE I STOPPED. THE RULE THIS BUYS, AND IT IS THE SECOND OF ITS KIND HERE: A PARTIAL READING RECORDED AS A NEGATIVE IS THE SAME ERROR AS A 403 RECORDED AS A NIL. This archive already controls for the second. Where a section is read, FIND ITS END -- the next section letter -- before writing «not there». 1845 is still on record as PARTIAL with seven faint lines and should be finished on the same principle. A FIFTH POLISTENA HOUSEHOLD CAME WITH IT: entry 143, the very next line, is «POLISTINA TOMMASO -- D. ANTONIO e PALADINO ANNUNZIATA», the «D.» being DON. NEXT, AND CHEAP: the ACT. The Tavola carries no act number and the register runs in date order, so 21 September 1844 is two or three probes into container LNolOVK. The act would give BOTH PARENTS' AGES -- dating Giuseppe Polistena and Anna Pontillo a third time -- and may carry a marriage annotation in its margin. THE ACT ITSELF WAS HUNTED THE SAME HOUR AND NOT FOUND -- FIVE ACTS ELIMINATED, WRITTEN DOWN SO NOBODY CHECKS THEM AGAIN. The 1844 volume maps cleanly: image N carries folio N-2, with the EVEN act on the left page and the ODD act on the right. Image 73 = folio 71 = acts 140 and 141; image 74 = folio 72 = acts 142 and 143. CHECKED AND EXCLUDED, all in the September run: ACT 138 (declarant Domenico Spoletti, child Alberto...), ACT 139 (child Giuseppe), ACT 140 (declarant Cosmo Bellantoni, child MARIANNA VIOLANTE), ACT 141 (declarant Domenico Calarco, baptised at the parish OF SOLANO), ACT 142 (declarant Giovanni Macri, mother a Barbaro of thirty, child ROSANTONIO, born the 28th). NONE IS POLISTINA. SO EITHER THE ACT SITS OUTSIDE 138-142 -- the September acts plausibly run 135 to 145 -- or the Tavola's «21 Settembre» is the BIRTH date against a later declaration, or that faint line reads a different day. THE FINDING DOES NOT DEPEND ON IT: the Tavola gives the parents and the date, and the marriage act's «trentasei» is exact for 21 September 1844 to the month. But THE ACT HAS NOT BEEN READ, and this archive's own rule says the index is not the source. NEXT PASS: montage the act-number-and-date band (region pct:50,10,48,20 at width 900 works) across images 68-76, which covers acts 132 to 149 in one look, instead of opening them one at a time as I did. AND THEN IT WAS FOUND, WITH THE TWO MONTAGES THAT SHOULD HAVE COME FIRST. One montage of the EVEN acts across images 68-77 mapped the year: September runs acts 129-143, October begins at 144. One montage of the ODD acts across images 68-73 put a POLISTINA at ACT 137. ATTO 137 OF 1844: «e comparso GIUSEPPE POLISTINA, DI ANNI CINQUANTA, MARINARO ... quale ci a presentato un MASCHIO ... nato da ANNA PONTILLO, FILATRICE, sua moglie legittima ... NEL GIORNO VENTUNO CORRENTE MESE ... di dare al fanciullo IL NOME DI CAMILLO ANTONIO.» The Indicazione column names the baptism of CAMILLO ANTONIO POLISTINA. SO THE TAVOLA WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE DATE AND THE PARENTS AND WRONG ABOUT THE NUMBER -- 142 was its row, 137 is the act -- WHICH IS THE THIRD TIME TODAY. And the act adds the full given name, CAMILLO ANTONIO, where the index gives only «Camillo». AND THE MARGIN CARRIES HIS MARRIAGE, annotated «Scilla 25 Gennaio 1881» -- two days after the wedding of 23 January 1881. The birth act and the marriage act point at each other across thirty-seven years. FIVE ACTS WERE OPENED ONE AT A TIME BEFORE THE MONTAGES WERE USED. That is the whole lesson: the montage is not a last resort, it is the first move in any volume whose index does not give act numbers.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1815 atto 29: Filippo Arena x Domenica Costa, FOUND done	Row 151. The 1815 napoleonic marriage volume, container 57O1erJ, thirty-five acts and no Tavola. Read by act-head montage -- number, date, groom, groom's father -- at pct:52,18,46,26, eight tiles to a sheet.	FOUND AT ACT 29, 12 NOVEMBER 1815, and the act names four people this archive had never seen: ORAZIO ARENA and SETTERIA MORABITO, Filippo's parents, both present and consenting; and the late GIOVANNI COSTA, dead at Scilla on 29 March 1790, and MARTA ALFONZETTI, Domenica's parents. Filippo was twenty-two, Domenica twenty-eight, and Filippo SIGNED. One montage pass plus two re-crops for acts under archivists' cards, thirty-two acts, no rate limiting -- images are never throttled.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1816 swept act by act for Filippo Arena done	Row 151. Container wQYJYDb, forty acts, no Tavola, catalogued VOLUME TARLATO. Every act head read in five montages.	NEGATIVE AND COMPLETE. Forty grooms, none of them Arena; act 41 struck and act 42 a blank form, so the volume's end was found before the negative was written -- the rule this archive adopted after the 1844 birth index.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1817 swept act by act for Filippo Arena done	Row 151. Container 5K9P9J9, thirty-nine acts, no Tavola, VOLUME TARLATO. Every act head read in four montages plus one crop for act 1.	NEGATIVE AND COMPLETE. Thirty-nine grooms, none of them Arena; act 40 carries the closing statement of 31 December 1817 and act 41 is a blank form, so the volume is demonstrably whole.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the act-head montage, proved on three unindexed marriage volumes done	Method. A restauration and napoleonic marriage opening puts the END of one act on the left page and the HEAD of the next on the right: «Num. d'Ordine», the date, the groom's name, his age, his trade and his father. Cropping pct:52,18,46,26 at width 900 and tiling ten to a sheet reads a whole volume in four or five images.	IT WORKS, AND IT REPLACES THE ANNUAL TAVOLA. 111 acts across 1815, 1816 and 1817 read in fourteen montages and three single crops. An unindexed volume is no longer a forty-opening read; it is a twenty-minute one. THE LIMIT: the crop shows the GROOM and his father, not the bride -- a search for a woman's marriage still needs the Tavola or a second crop band.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — twenty-one Scilla marriage containers, 1820-1843, banked in one sitting done	Row 157. The expensive step in any Antenati sweep is ark to container, and it normally costs a page load apiece against a limiter that 403s after about three. Fetched from inside the origin in page context, six at a time, five seconds apart.	TWENTY-ONE CONTAINERS AND NO 403, where twenty-one navigations would have locked the session out repeatedly. Image counts came free off the IIIF manifests, which are never throttled. Every Scilla marriage volume from 1820 to 1843 is now openable without spending another page load -- which is what makes a Tavola sweep for Filippo Arena's siblings, and for Francesco Antonio's elder brothers, a reading job rather than a rate-limit job.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla processetti 1815, bundle 29: the Arena-Costa marriage file, READ ENTIRE done	Row 159. Container LqA4a7D, 364 images covering 1815 and 1816. Found by scanning wrappers -- they carry the year, the folio range, the bundle number and the couple in three words -- at five-image spacing, then two at step two to close in.	FOUND AT IMAGE 149 AND READ ENTIRE. «1815 \| 114 a 116 \| N.o 29 \| Scilla \| Documenti per il Matrimonio di Filippo Arena e Domenica Costa \| fogli tre». Three Latin extracts: both spouses' baptisms, 1793 and 1787, and the bride's father's death, 1790. They gave two exact birth dates, corrected a given name, settled a five-year age dispute, and produced GENERATION NINE -- Giuseppe Costa and Giacoma Turco, both dead by 1790. THE WRAPPERS ARE THE INDEX: this volume has no other finding aid, and a targeted hunt cost about forty thumbnails where row 151 had budgeted 2,191.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo relisted in full: 457 registers, not the 103 this archive held done	The whole holding in one page load, `?localita=Piedimonte Etneo&s_size=500`, parsed in page context and verified group by group against the live listing -- every fondo, type, ark range, count and year list reconciled before anything was written.	THE ARCHIVE HELD LESS THAN A QUARTER OF IT. 457 registers: 223 restaurazione, 225 italiano, and NINE «RIVELI DI ANIME E DI TERRE» of the Deputazione del Regno, 1714 and 1747-1752, which nobody here knew existed. What had never been listed at all: every italiano year after 1863, all the ALLEGATI and PUBBLICAZIONI, the Diversi, the Cittadinanze, and the twenty volumes of MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI 1841-1860. THE HOLDING STOPS AT 1893 -- so Venera Cassaneti's death in 1925 and the Mazza-Nicotra marriage of about 1900 are NOT on Antenati and never were.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1875 searched for Maria Nicotra done	Her tree year. The annual index (images 99-101, alphabetical by surname) holds exactly one «Nicotra Maria», act 34, and the act was read in the original.	READ, AND ELIMINATED ON THE MARGIN. Act 34 is Maria Nicotra born 6 March 1875 in via San Basile to ALFIO NICOTRA, sixty-eight, bracciante, and ANGELA PREVITERA -- not John Nicotra and Venera Cassaneti. Her marginal annotation settles it: «Unita in matrimonio con Nicito Giuseppe fu Vincenzo con atto del 29.7.91 iscritto in Piedimonte Etneo». Ours married SALVATORE MAZZA and died at Brisbane in 1963. 1875 IS CLOSED, and the method for the rest is now fixed: read each year's index for Nicotra Maria, then read that act's MARGIN, which names the husband and identifies ours in one crop.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1879 index read whole: no Salvatore Mazza, and no Nicotra at all done	Row 161 and the Salvatore Mazza birth year. The Indice Annuale at images 78-80, alphabetical by surname; M and N sections read at native width.	TWO NEGATIVES FOR ONE INDEX READ. The M section of 1879 holds «Mazza Rosaria 167» and «Mazza Venerio 205» and NO Salvatore -- so the tree's «Salvatore Mazza 1879» has no birth act at Piedimonte in that year, and this archive's link to NATI 1873 ATTO 3 stands with a negative behind it instead of only a reading. The N section holds Neri, Nicodemo and Nucifora and NO NICOTRA WHATEVER, so 1879 is closed for Maria Nicotra too. The index also caught «Mazza Rosaria 167», a possible sister of Salvatore, not yet opened. AND THE REACH IS NOW KNOWN, AND IT WAS NEVER HER TOWN. This sweep could reach exactly one thing: children registered AT PIEDIMONTE ETNEO. Maria Nicotra was registered at MASCALI, the next comune -- Nati 1875 atto 144, read 21 September -- because her father Giovanni Nicotra was «domiciliato e residente a Mascali» and a wife went to her husband's comune. So the Nicotra nil in this year is TRUE AND SAYS NOTHING ABOUT HER. What it does still say, and this part stands, is that no SALVATORE MAZZA was registered at Piedimonte in 1879.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1873 atto 3: read in full, and its margin is EMPTY done	Row 161. The act was already cited here from an earlier reading; what had never been looked at was its MARGINAL ANNOTATION, which in this series names the subject's spouse and the date and comune of the marriage -- the instrument that identified and eliminated the 1875 Maria Nicotra in one crop.	THE ACT IS RICHER THAN THE CITATION AND THE MARGIN IS BLANK. «Rosario Mazza DI MARIANO, di anni ventotto, bracciante» presented a son born 5 January 1873 at seven in the morning to his wife «LEONARDA BONANNO DI GAETANO», in CONTRADA TERREMORTE, named SALVADORE. The patronymics confirm Mariano Mazza and Gaetano Bonanno from a second act. But the annotation column beside it is EMPTY, where the act four lines down carries a full marriage annotation -- so this route does not locate Salvatore's marriage to Maria Nicotra, and a blank box proves nothing either way. ALSO WORTH RECORDING: the opening is photographed TWICE, once with an archivist's masking card over the right page and once with it moved. The card covered this act entirely on image 3; image 4 shows it whole.
20 Sep 2026	The archive's own chart — /tree/ now draws people the family tree does not contain done	Rows 51 and 63. The blocker was recorded as «the charts are the shared kit's and this archive leaves the kit alone». Re-read the kit instead of working around it.	THE KIT HAD ALREADY LEFT THE DOOR OPEN AND SAID SO IN A COMMENT. `lineage()` takes `parentsOf(row)` from the caller, and `kit/lib/ahnen.js` reads: «returning a row that is not in the file is allowed and is the point: a parent known only as a name on a register is still a real thing the chart should draw, and refusing it would quietly shorten the line.» So `/tree/`'s own parentsOf now falls back to `documented-parents.json` where the export gives a person no parents -- NOT where it gives them parents, because the chart is a drawing of the tree and silently redrawing it would be lying about the source. ROSARIO MAZZA'S LINE NO LONGER ENDS AT A CARD SAYING «Before Piedimonte Etneo, 1850»: MARIANO MAZZA and MARIA CATALANO now stand above him, graded as documented, unlinked because they have no person page. Nothing in the kit was touched and no fork was made.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo birth indexes swept for a Maria Nicotra: 1870, 1871, 1873, 1874, 1876 part	Row 161. Each year's Indice Annuale read in the original at the N section, every entry named. With 1875 and 1879, read separately, that is SEVEN years.	NOT ONE MARIA NICOTRA IN ANY OF THEM, and the N sections are short enough to quote whole. 1870: Nicodemo Antonino di Giuseppe 74, NICOTRA FILIPPA di Leonardo 76, Nucifora Leonarda di Salvatore 179. 1871: NICOTRA SALVATORE 17, NICOTRA GIOVANNI 52. 1873: Nicodemo Francesco 87, NICOTRA IGNAZIO 86. 1874: Nicodemo Francesco 177, Nucifora Salvatore 185. 1876: Nicolosi Francesco 89, Nucifora Giovanni 156, Nucifora Alfio 181, Nicodemo Rosario 180. WITH 1875 (one Maria Nicotra, eliminated on her margin) AND 1879 (no Nicotra at all), SEVEN OF THE LIKELIEST YEARS ARE CLOSED. The Nicotra are at Piedimonte -- five births in five years -- but they are not producing a Maria. USEFUL BY-PRODUCT: the indexes of 1870 and 1872 are written «Surname Given DI FATHER», so the patronymic is in the index itself and a candidate can be confirmed or dismissed without opening the act.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1872: no Maria Nicotra, and a Mazza child the tree lacks done	Row 161. The Indice Annuale at images 77-78, two openings, read whole at the M and N sections.	THE N SECTION IS NICOTRA ANGELO 147, NICOTRA GIOVANNA 158, NUCIFORA FRANCESCA 162 -- no Maria, which closes an eighth year. THE M SECTION PAID INSTEAD: «MAZZA MARIANO -- 32». Act 32 read in the original: born 12 February 1872 in CONTRADA SAN BASILIO to «ROSARIO MAZZA DI MARIANO, d'anni ventisette, bracciante» and «LEONARDA BONANNO DI GAETANO». Salvatore Mazza's elder brother, the naming custom pointing straight back at Mariano Mazza (b. c. 1809), and Rosario's age confirming 1845 for the third time. AND A COINCIDENCE WORTH WATCHING, NOT YET EVIDENCE: the 1875 Maria Nicotra who is NOT ours was born in VIA SAN BASILE to Alfio Nicotra, bracciante -- the same lane. The Mazza and the Nicotra were neighbours at Piedimonte, which argues for reading the rest of the Piedimonte years before reaching for Catania.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1877: no Nicotra at all, and a second Rosario Mazza done	Row 161. The Indice Annuale at images 102-105, M and N sections read at native width; then two Mazza acts opened off the M section.	THE 1877 N SECTION HAS ONE ENTRY AND IT IS NOT A NICOTRA: «Nicodemo Maria -- 85». NINTH YEAR CLOSED. The M section held «Mazza Antonino 164» and «Mazza Orazio 168», and act 168 is the find: a Rosario Mazza, thirty-one, whose wife is ALSO called Leonarda -- LEONARDA MONACORSO, contadina, in VIA GROTTA NICODEMO. A SECOND ROSARIO-AND-LEONARDA AT PIEDIMONTE. Ours is «Rosario Mazza DI MARIANO» with Leonarda Bonanno in contrada San Basilio; the patronymic and the street are what tell them apart, and the family tree's own Orazio Mazza, born 1883 to a Rosario and a Leonarda, is precisely who this act would have been hung on. ALSO BANKED: an act-to-image map for this volume -- each opening carries two acts on the left page and one or two on the right, and the openings are photographed TWICE, once with the archivist's card over the left page.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the WHOLE DECADE 1870-1879 of Piedimonte births read for Maria Nicotra done	Row 161. Ten consecutive annual indexes, every N section read in the original at native width and every entry named. Not a sample: the decade.	TEN YEARS, TEN N SECTIONS, AND NOT ONE MARIA NICOTRA WHO COULD BE HERS. 1870 Nicotra Filippa; 1871 Nicotra Salvatore, Nicotra Giovanni; 1872 Nicotra Angelo, Nicotra Giovanna; 1873 Nicotra Ignazio; 1874 none; 1875 ONE Maria Nicotra, eliminated on her own margin, which marries her to Giuseppe Nicito at Piedimonte in 1891; 1876 none; 1877 none; 1878 Nicotra Alfio twice; 1879 none. THE SURNAME IS THERE THROUGHOUT and the family is having children; it is simply not having this one. A DECADE IS NOT A SAMPLE, and the year she should be in is the year she is most clearly absent from. The tree's «born 1875 at Piedimonte Etneo» now has a complete decade against its comune. What it does NOT yet have against it is 1866-1869 and 1880-1884, and those get read before anything is concluded.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1880 and 1881 read for Maria Nicotra done	Row 161. Both annual indexes read at the N section in the original; 1881's N block is split across two openings and both halves were read, because a section that ends at the foot of a page is exactly where a partial reading turns into a false negative.	TWELVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS NOW, 1870-1881, AND STILL NO MARIA NICOTRA. 1880's N section is a single entry, NUCIFORA FRANCESCO 92 -- no Nicotra at all. 1881's is NICOTRA ANTONINA 24 at the foot of one opening, continuing on the next with NUCIFORA CONCETTA, NUCIFORA AGATA, NICOTRA MARIANO and NERI CONCETTA. A LEAD NOT YET OPENED: the 1880 M section carries «MAZZA GAETANO -- 66», and GAETANO is the name the Sicilian custom gives a SECOND son -- the mother's father. Leonarda Bonanno's father is Gaetano Bonanno. That act may be another child of Rosario and Leonarda, or another of the town's Mazza households; it has not been opened and nothing is claimed. AND THE REACH IS NOW KNOWN, AND IT WAS NEVER HER TOWN. These indexes cover births registered AT PIEDIMONTE ETNEO and nothing else. Maria Nicotra was born at MASCALI on 8 December 1875 (Nati 1875 atto 144) to Giovanni Nicotra, a Mascali man, and Venera Cassaniti. Fourteen consecutive Piedimonte indexes were read carefully and could never have held her. THE NIL IS A FACT ABOUT THE COMUNE THAT WAS SEARCHED, not about the family.
20 Sep 2026	NAA NameSearch — MAZZA Maria and NICOTRA, all records done	Row 161, asking the other side of the question. Twelve years of Piedimonte birth indexes have not produced her; her own Australian papers would give her birthplace directly, without another Italian register.	FOUND, AND IT IS THE RIGHT INSTRUMENT: NAA: BP25/1, ITALIAN MAZZA M, Brisbane, Item ID 5041955, ACCESS OPEN -- «MAZZA [NEE NICOTRA], MARIA - Nationality: Italian - arrived Sydney 20 April 1962 on PHDCG». An Australian government file that states her MAIDEN NAME and gives an arrival this archive did not have. Alien registration files of this kind routinely carry a DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH, which is exactly what twelve years of Piedimonte indexes have failed to establish. IT IS NOT DIGITISED -- paper, at the Brisbane reading room -- so it is a copy request, not a search. The NICOTRA name search returns 148 items; nothing else in the first twenty is this household, though «BP9/3, Nicotra, Teresa born 1895, arrived Brisbane on ORMONDE 16 September 1930» is a Brisbane Nicotra worth a second look.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1880 atto 66: the lead left standing is a son done	The 1880 M section carried «Mazza Gaetano -- 66» and the row was written up as a lead, not a finding, because Gaetano is a common name and the town holds three Mazza households. The act was then opened.	IT IS OURS, AND THE TEST WAS THE STREET AND THE MOTHER'S SURNAME. «Mazza Rosario, di anni trentadue, bracciante ... da BONANNO LEONARDA, industriosa, sua moglie ... VIA S. BASILIO ... il nome di GAETANO», born 5 May 1880. The other Rosario-and-Leonarda of this town lives in via Grotta Nicodemo and his wife is a Monacorso. SO THE NAMING CUSTOM HAS NOW CALLED TWO CHILDREN IN A ROW: Mariano in 1872 for the father's father, Gaetano in 1880 for the mother's father GAETANO BONANNO. The act-number map for this volume was banked on the way: two acts to the left page, one to the right, and act 66 sits on the right page of image 30.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1882 and 1883: fourteen consecutive years now, and no Orazio Mazza either done	Row 161, and a second question carried in the same read: the family tree dates ORAZIO MAZZA, son of Rosario and Leonarda, to 1883, and nothing has ever tested that.	FOURTEEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS, 1870-1883, AND NO MARIA NICOTRA. 1882's N section is NICOTRA NUNZIA 65, NUCIFORA ROSARIA 103, NICODEMO FRANCESCO 114. 1883's is NICOTRA ROSA 27, NUCIFORA LIBORIA 100, NUCIFORA MICHELE 189, NUCIFORA MARIANO 198, NUCIFORA ALFIO 201. AND THE SAME TWO PAGES ANSWER THE ORAZIO QUESTION: the 1883 M section holds MAZZA ROSARIA 117 and MAZZA VENERA 118 -- consecutive numbers, so possibly sisters or twins -- and NO ORAZIO. With the 1877 Orazio Mazza already shown to belong to the OTHER Rosario-and-Leonarda of the town, the tree's «Orazio Mazza, born 1883» has no birth act at Piedimonte in either year. He is not disproved, he is UNLOCATED, and the years between are unread.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the Riveli di anime e di terre, Piedimonte 1747-1748: the whole index read done	Row 162, and the first time this archive has opened anything from the Deputazione del Regno. Container noPNme4, 73 images. IMAGES 1-14 ARE AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX with cut letter tabs down the fore-edge, and it is alphabetised BY GIVEN NAME, so the whole of it has to be read -- which it was, all fourteen openings, about eighty households.	THERE IS NO MAZZA AT PIEDIMONTE IN 1747. There are two MAZZEO: «Onofrio Mazzeo, folio 5» and «Silvestro Mazzeo, folio 29». Both were cropped at native resolution to be sure of the ending, and both read -EO. MAZZEO IS NOT MAZZA UNTIL SOMETHING SAYS IT IS -- Sicilian surname endings drift and the two may well be one family, but that is a hypothesis and this archive has been burned by exactly this kind of near-match before. THE REST OF THE TOWN IS STRIKINGLY CONTINUOUS: Pagano, Currenti, Grasso, Musumeci, Vasta, Puglisi, Torrisi, Sullo, Cadili, Vecchio, Barone, Moschella, di Mauro, Ricceri, Cassisi, Tomarchio, Zappala, Messina, Rinaldo, di Costa, Patane -- the same surnames that fill the birth indexes of the 1870s and 1880s. So the register is legible, the town is recognisable, and MAZZA IS NOT IN IT. That is consistent with what the nineteenth-century registers already said: no Mazza in the births of 1844 or 1846, two in 1845, four marriages in sixteen years.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the two Mazzeo folios of the 1747 Piedimonte riveli, read in full done	Row 162. The index gave «Onofrio Mazzeo folio 5» and «Silvestro Mazzeo folio 29». The folio numbers are written in the top outer corner of each opening with an older number struck through, so the map falls out of five probes: FOLIO = IMAGE - 16 in container noPNme4.	BOTH READ, AND THE SURNAME IS SETTLED: MAZZEO, written four times across two folios in two hands, never Mazza. FOLIO 5: «Rivelo che Io ONOFRIO MAZZEO ... in virtu di Bando promulgato sotto li 30 Aprile 1747. ANIME: Notato Onofrio Mazzeo d'anni TRENTA; et CARMINA moglie; et GIUSEPPE figlio.» FOLIO 29: «Rivelo che Io SILVESTRO MAZZEO ... ANIME: M.ro Silvestro Mazzeo d'anni TRENTACINQUE; et MARIA moglie», followed by his house -- «un loggio terraneo di pietra a cruda, scagliato dentro e di fuori di calce, per proprio abitare, consistente in una stanza in piano». THE SHAPE OF A RIVELO, AND ITS LIMIT: «Rivelo che Io ...» naming the declarant and the bando, then ANIME, then BENI STABILI in close detail, then the dues. AT PIEDIMONTE ONLY THE HEAD'S AGE IS GIVEN -- the wife and the son are named and not aged -- so a rivelo here will not hand you a wife's or a child's birth year, which is the thing one hopes for. It gives the HOUSEHOLD and the HOUSE.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Briatico relisted, and the listing is NOT complete part	Turning the Piedimonte lesson on the other deep line: `briatico-arks.tsv` holds EIGHTY registers, and nobody had checked whether that is the holding or just what was looked for. Prompted by CATERINA MELLUSO, born at Briatico in 1860 -- a wall on the ancestry chart with no parents and not one record against her.	BRIATICO HAS 555 REGISTERS, NOT EIGHTY. The result facets read «Archivio di Stato di Catanzaro (440)» and «Archivio di Stato di Vibo Valentia (115)». A listing at s_size=500 returned 500 of them and showed years running 1810 to 1930 WITH NOTHING BETWEEN 1859 AND 1910 -- which would put Caterina Melluso's 1860 birth and her marriage to Alfonso Prostamo beyond Antenati entirely. THAT IS NOT YET A FINDING AND IS RECORDED AS PART, NOT DONE. FIFTY-FIVE REGISTERS WERE NOT IN THE SAMPLE, and the ones held at Vibo Valentia rather than Catanzaro are exactly where a later series would sit. A 500-of-555 listing reported as a gap is the same error as a partial index section reported as a negative, and this archive has paid for that twice. s_size above 500 times out and the rate limiter closed the session before it could be finished by year probes. TO FINISH: one listing that reaches all 555, or year probes on 1860, 1880 and 1900.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1809 read entire: the first year of the register done	Rows 157 and 167. Container LD6vJel, twenty-five acts. The napoleonic form is BETTER than the restaurazione one for this: it names the groom, his age, his trade, his parents and THE BRIDE in one block, so a single crop band reads both spouses.	COMPLETE AND NEGATIVE FOR BOTH SURNAMES. No Arena groom, no Donato groom, in the first year Scilla ever registered a marriage. The volume's end was found before the negative was written -- images 26 and 27 are blank forms. TWO BRIDES WORTH KEEPING: act 2 is FORTUNATA DONATO and act 10 is GIACOMA ARENA. Both families were in the town in 1809, which is what makes the negative on the grooms worth something.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1813-1814 read entire, and an Arena household nobody had met done	Rows 157 and 167. Container 0MnkW4l, two years in one volume, forty-four acts, read groom by groom off the act head.	NO DONATO GROOM IN EITHER YEAR -- so with 1809, 1815, 1816 and 1817, SIX YEARS ARE NOW CLEAR FOR CANDELORO DONATO. 1810, 1811 and 1812 are NOT: their Tavole were read for the letter F on the Arena hunt, and a Candeloro sits under C or D. AND ACT 21 IS AN ARENA: DIEGO ARENA, thirty-seven, SARTORE, «figlio maggiore di DOMENICO ARENA, di anni SETTANTA, di professione BARBIERE, e di ANNA MELIDONI», marrying Maria Giuseppa Pontillo, sixteen, on 12 August 1813. DOMENICO ARENA WAS BORN ABOUT 1743, earlier than any Arena in this archive including Orazio, and he is a BARBER where the spine is sailors. NOTHING JOINS HIM TO FILIPPO and this archive has been caught by a shared given name before.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, NINE consecutive marriage years read for a Donato: 1809-1817 done	Row 167. The three indexed napoleonic years, 1810, 1811 and 1812, were read WHOLE rather than for one letter -- the 1811 and 1812 Tavole name both spouses AND all four parents, the 1810 indice names both spouses -- and 1809, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816 and 1817 were read groom by groom off the act head.	NO DONATO MARRIAGE AT SCILLA IN NINE CONSECUTIVE YEARS, 1809 TO 1817, on either side of any act. So CANDELORO DONATO AND MARTA PALADINO MARRIED BEFORE 1809 and their marriage is pre-civil and parish. THE OLD CONCLUSION IS RESTORED AND THE REASONING REPLACED: this archive said he was where the Scilla line stops «because registration begins in 1816», which was false; he is where it stops because nine civil years hold no Donato and their eldest son was born about 1814. A right answer that rested on a false premise is not evidence, and now it rests on nine complete readings instead.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — six Arena households at Scilla in the napoleonic years, and not one of them is Filippo's done	Row 157. Every napoleonic marriage year, 1809-1817, read for the surname ARENA on BOTH sides and in the parents' columns, which the 1811 and 1812 Tavole supply.	SIX ARENA, NONE OF THEM JOINED. As a GROOM: DIEGO ARENA, sartore, 1813 act 21, son of DOMENICO ARENA, barbiere, SEVENTY -- born about 1743, the earliest Arena in this archive. As BRIDES: GIACOMA ARENA (1809 act 10) and GIOVANNA ARENA (1812 act 10, daughter of CARLO ARENA and EUGENIA ATEJA). As MOTHERS: NATALINA ARENA (1811) and ANTONIA ARENA, dead before 1811, wife of Domenico Falcomata, whose two daughters marry in 1811 and 1812. SO THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE ARENA FATHERS AT SCILLA IN THIS DECADE -- DOMENICO the barber, CARLO, and ORAZIO who is Filippo's -- AND NOTHING CONNECTS THEM. That is the finding: not a line, but the shape of a surname in a town, and a warning against the join this archive would most like to make.
20 Sep 2026	Queensland BDM — the whole NICOTRA and CASSANETI/CASSANITI index, swept by surname done	Row 161. The registrar's `downloadSearch` endpoint returns a whole result set as CSV in one GET. It refuses curl with a 403 and works from inside the site's own origin. Three spellings tried.	EIGHTEEN NICOTRA IN QUEENSLAND AND ONLY ONE IS OURS -- the 1963 death of «Maria Nicotra Mazza», parents JOHN NICOTRA and VENERA CASSANETI, which this archive already held. NOT ONE OTHER NICOTRA REGISTRATION NAMES EITHER OF THEM AS A PARENT, so Maria appears to have had no sibling who died or married in Queensland; the Queensland Nicotra are Maccarone, Patane, Scalia and Carbone households and none of them is hers. AND THE SURNAME IS PROBABLY SPELT WRONG: «CASSANETI» RETURNS NOTHING AT ALL in the whole index -- her own death registration is the only instance of that spelling in Queensland -- while «CASSANITI» returns five, and CASSANITI is the ordinary Catanese form. It is also the form in the PIEDIMONTE birth index, which holds a «Cassaniti Sebastiano» and a «Cassaniti Leonardo Maria» in 1875 alone. So the tree's spelling comes from an informant at a Brisbane registry in 1963, and the Sicilian records will not answer to it.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Matrimoni 1821: FILIPPO ARENA'S BROTHER done	Row 157, on its own stated method: find a sibling, and the year that sibling married will date the parents. The 1821 Tavola is alphabetised BY SURNAME, so Arena sits at the top of the book and the whole test is one crop.	TWO ARENA GROOMS IN THE A SECTION, AND THE SECOND IS HIM. «ARENA GIUSEPPE x POLISTINA MARIA TERESA -- ORAZIO, e LITTERIA MORABITO -- 13 9bre», act 29. The act, read in the original: «GIUSEPPE ARENA, di anni VENTISETTE, nato in questo Comune, di professione MARINARO, FIGLIO DI ORAZIO ARENA, di professione MARINARO, E DI LITTERIA MORABITO», promessa 7 November 1821 before TOMMASO CUTELLI -- the same sindaco who married Filippo in 1815. THE METHOD PAID EXACTLY AS PREDICTED: Orazio and Litteria are named WITHOUT «fu», so both were alive on 7 November 1821, six years later than anything else showed. And LITTERIA is confirmed a third time. The other A entry, ARENA ROCCO x COSTA DOMENICA (act 20), has different parents and is a different household -- a fourth Arena family at Scilla.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — twelve Scilla marriage Tavole, 1820-1831, read at the A section done	Row 168. These Tavole are alphabetised BY SURNAME and name BOTH SPOUSES AND ALL FOUR PARENTS, so Arena sits at the top of the book and a whole year costs one crop. The only trick is that the Tavola begins at image n-3 in some years and n-2 in others, so both are fetched.	EIGHT ARENA GROOMS IN SEVEN HOUSEHOLDS, AND TWO OF THEM ARE ORAZIO'S SONS. GIUSEPPE (1821 act 29) and ANTONIO (1828 act 26), both «Orazio e Litteria/Letteria Morabito» -- so Filippo has TWO brothers and the parents are dated alive to 10 AUGUST 1828. The other six: ARENA ROCCO 1821 (mother Vittoria Fiorenza); ARENA ANTONIO 1822 and ARENA LUCIANO 1827 (both «Giuseppe ed Antonia Polimeni», so brothers); ARENA CARLO 1826 («fu Antonino e Vittoria Molinari»); ARENA ANTONINO 1827 («Giuseppe e Carmela d'Amico»); ARENA BONAVENTURA 1827 («Rocco e Domenica Samari»). FOUR YEARS HAVE NO A SECTION AT ALL -- 1823, 1829, 1830, 1831 -- and 1820, 1824 and 1825 have one A entry each and it is not an Arena. THE PARENTS' COLUMN IS THE WHOLE INSTRUMENT: without it these eight men are one indistinguishable surname.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — seven more Scilla marriage Tavole, 1832-1838, and the year Orazio Arena died done	Row 168, continuing. One crop a year at the A section, except that the Tavola's first page moves between n-4 and n-2 and had to be located in four of the seven years.	THE SWEEP FOUND WHAT IT WAS BUILT TO FIND. 1838 opens on «ARENA DOMENICO e POLISTINA TERESA -- FU ORAZIO, e Lett.a Morabito -- 4 7bre 1838 -- 20». THE «FU» IS THE FINDING: Orazio Arena is named LIVING in the Tavole of 1821 and 1828 and DEAD in 1838, so HE DIED BETWEEN 10 AUGUST 1828 AND 4 SEPTEMBER 1838. Letteria Morabito outlived him. And Domenico is a FOURTH SON after Filippo, Giuseppe and Antonio. TWO OTHER ARENA GROOMS, NEITHER OURS: FRANCESCO in 1833 («fu Santo, e Fiorenza Vittoria») -- which also supplies the father's name for the Rocco Arena of 1821, same mother, so they are brothers and their father is SANTO ARENA; and SANTO in 1836 («fu Domenico, e Autieri Santa»). 1832, 1834 and 1835 have one A entry each and it is not an Arena; 1837 has NO A SECTION AT ALL.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — the last five Scilla marriage Tavole, 1839-1843: the run is complete done	Row 168. Twenty-four consecutive years, 1820 to 1843, every A section read. The Tavola's first page moves between n-4 and n-2 with no rule, so several years cost a second fetch to find it.	TWENTY-FOUR YEARS COMPLETE. 1839 has no A section; 1840 and 1842 have one A entry each and it is not an Arena; 1841 holds ARENA ROCCO x MARTELLO DOMENICA («fu Santo») and 1843 holds ARENA SALVADORE, CALZOLAIO, x POLISTINA MARIA, FILATRICE («Gaetano e Lomanti Camilla»). NO CHILD OF ORAZIO ARENA MARRIES AFTER 1838, which is consistent with four sons already married by then. ACROSS THE WHOLE RUN: TWELVE ARENA GROOMS IN ABOUT EIGHT HOUSEHOLDS, of which THREE are Orazio's -- Giuseppe 1821, Antonio 1828, Domenico 1838 -- with Filippo's 1815 marriage just outside the range. ONE FORM CHANGE WORTH KNOWING: from 1842 the Tavola adds a PROFESSIONE column for both spouses.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla, Morti 1830 atto 64: ORAZIO ARENA, and his parents done	Row 169, opened this afternoon with a ten-year window. The death Tavole are the same instrument as the marriage ones -- surname order, a parents column, and the SPOUSE in it for a married person -- so a year costs one A-section crop. 1828 and 1829 were read first and hold other Arena.	FOUND IN THE SECOND YEAR, AND IT GIVES A GENERATION. The 1830 A section reads «ARENA ORAZIO -- Scilla -- MARINARO -- Mar.to MORABITO LETTERIA -- 12 Luglio». The act, reached by walking the dates rather than the index (the Tavola's number is its own row, not the act): «ORAZIO ARENA, MARITO LITTERIA MORABITO, nato in questo Comune, DI ANNI SETTANTANOVE, di professione MARINARO, FIGLIO DEL FU FILIPPO ARENA E DELLA FU SANTA UNGARO», dead at six in the morning of 12 July 1830 in his own house, declared by DIEGO ARENA, twenty-two, and PROSPERO ARENA, twenty-five, both marinari and both «nipote del defonto». THREE THINGS: the death is exact to the hour; he was born about 1751, NINETEEN YEARS earlier than this archive had inferred from his sons' ages; and HIS PARENTS ARE NAMED -- FILIPPO ARENA and SANTA UNGARO, generation nine. The first son of Orazio is a Filippo, born 1793: the naming custom, confirmed by a record after the fact rather than used to make an identification.
20 Sep 2026	Antenati — sixteen Scilla death containers banked, 1828-1844, and the 1838 A section read part	Row 170. The death volumes for the window Litteria Morabito died in. Containers fetched from inside the origin, five at a time.	SIXTEEN CONTAINERS BANKED -- 1828 to 1836 and 1838 to 1844 -- so the sweep for her is a reading job. THE 1838 A SECTION IS READ AND SHE IS NOT IN IT: Arlotta Mariano, Arlotta Caterina, Arlotta Antonino, ARENA ROCCO (11 Agosto), Arlotta Mariano, Arlotta Giuseppe. AND THIS IS RECORDED AS PART, NOT DONE, FOR A REASON THIS ARCHIVE ALREADY KNOWS: a married woman can be indexed under her HUSBAND'S surname or her own. Serafina Arlotta is «ARENA Serafina, fu Giovanni» in the 1908 index. So Litteria Morabito may sit under A for Arena or under M for Morabito, and reading only the A section of a year is HALF a search. THE M SECTION HAS NOT BEEN READ FOR ANY YEAR.
21 Sep 2026	The holdings table — 874 volumes across four comuni, counted not asserted done	Rows 37 and 135, both written on 13 and 16 September and both asking for the same thing from different heights: which volumes exist and can be opened, and which comuni Antenati has indexed BY NAME. Built from the ark banks, which are this archive's own record of what it has listed.	874 VOLUMES, 259 OPENABLE TODAY. The table is on «What Has Been Read», broken down comune by fondo by record type, with the year span, the volume count, how many have a container bought, and whether an annual index was seen. THE «BOUGHT» COLUMN IS COUNTED FROM THE BANKS RATHER THAN ASSERTED, so the page cannot overstate what this archive can open. AND A BLANK IN THE INDEX COLUMN MEANS «NOT RECORDED», NEVER «NO INDEX» -- only Scilla's restauration bank carries that column at all, which is why the figure is three and why it is not a coverage claim. THE NAME INDEX IS ON THE SAME PAGE, because where Antenati has indexed by name the volume index does not matter: Scilla deaths 1911-1943, PIZZO BIRTHS 1868-1903, Catania deaths 1911 onward -- and the ACT TYPE DIFFERS BETWEEN THEM, which is the trap. Five comuni are not indexed at all.
21 Sep 2026	The grade-gap checker — and the wrong Mariano Mazza was still carrying his great-grandfather's life done	Row 53. A tool that lists every parent edge the chart draws DASHED for a person whose act this archive has already read, so the gap between reading and grading is visible and finite instead of invisible and assumed empty.	IT FOUND FOUR REAL CANDIDATES AND ONE LIVE ERROR. The candidates: ANTONIO ARENA to ROCCO ARENA and GENEROSA COSTA, named in the New York City Births index of 4 October 1896 -- both now graded «index», because the index entry is not the certificate. Antonino Prostamo to Caterina Di Meio, which row 45 is arguing about and must not be graded. And Orazio Arena to Giuseppe Arena, whose read act is about his OWN CHILDREN and says nothing about his father -- exactly the «may or may not name the parent» case the tool refuses to decide. THE LIVE ERROR: the export's «mariano-mazza», a twentieth-century grandson of Rosario, was still carrying TWO CORRECTIONS keyed to his slug that describe his great-grandfather -- «born about 1809», «BRACCIALE in 1845». Yesterday's fix removed the record and left the corrections. Detached, with the reason on the row. TWO FALSE-POSITIVE CLASSES WERE CUT FIRST: the tool matched «register» inside «Brisbane Catholic Cemeteries register» and reported twenty burials, and it reported Ellis Island manifests. A burial plot names who lies beside whom; it does not name a father.
21 Sep 2026	The instruments, written down where a reader would look done	Row 83. Nine ways of reading that this archive worked out and that were living in commit messages and memory files -- which is to say, nowhere a reader could find them.	PUBLISHED ON /method/, DATA-DRIVEN FROM data/instruments.tsv. The annual Tavola; the act-head montage; the marriage processetti; the marginal annotation; the register index at s_size=500; the container fetch from inside the origin; the Riveli di anime e di terre; the Queensland BDM download endpoint; and NAA item titles. EVERY ROW CARRIES A CAUTION AND THE BUILDER REFUSES A ROW WITHOUT ONE -- an instrument described without the way it fails is how a method becomes a superstition, and the best tool here, the Tavola, changes its alphabetical key between adjacent years. THE PAGE ALSO STOPPED LYING ABOUT ITS OWN AUDIT: it said «nine were audited and five had already failed» in fixed prose while the page it links to counted for itself. It now reads twelve and seven, because it counts.
21 Sep 2026	The sources page, extracted into data -- and it was underselling the archive by a year's work done	Row 120. Seventy lines of source list inline in the page, which meant they could not be counted, checked or added to without editing a template. The same failure as the audit and the disputed edges.	EXTRACTED TO data/sources.tsv, AND EVERY ROW NOW CARRIES «SEEN» -- act, index, tree, lore or wall, the only thing about a source that really matters. Twenty-five sources: SIX READ IN THE ORIGINAL, fifteen index-only, one the tree's own compilation, one unreferenced, two walls. AND THE EXTRACTION EXPOSED A STALE PAGE THAT WAS UNDERSELLING THE ARCHIVE. It opened «almost every source below is an INDEX cited by the family tree, not a document this archive has seen» and listed NO ITALIAN CIVIL REGISTER AT ALL; it closed with a section headed «What is not here yet» whose first sentence was «No Italian civil register has been read for this family». Both were true on the day the archive was built and both were months out of date. THE OLD HEADLINE IS KEPT ON THE PAGE, STRUCK, because an archive that quietly deletes its own wrong headline is harder to trust than one that shows the correction. What is actually missing is now narrower and harder: the parish books of Scilla, Piedimonte after 1893, five files at Brisbane, and Zambrone's missing nine years.
21 Sep 2026	Open Questions turned into rows, and two answers from yesterday that were never added done	Row 119. Two hundred lines of prose -- an inline array for seven questions and five hand-written blocks for others -- which could not be counted or filtered, and which nobody came back to.	FIFTEEN QUESTIONS IN data/questions.tsv, RENDERED BY THE KIT'S Questions COMPONENT, whose own comment says the extraction «is research work belonging to each archive rather than something to guess at from outside». FIVE OPEN, TEN ANSWERED. THE BUILDER REFUSES A ROW WITH NO «SETTLES» FIELD -- a question without the record that would answer it is a regret, not a queue item. AND THE EXTRACTION CAUGHT WHAT THE PROSE HID: three questions were headed ANSWERED and still sat undifferentiated beside the open ones; TWO ANSWERED ON 20 SEPTEMBER HAD NEVER BEEN ADDED AT ALL -- Filippo Arena's marriage and how far above him the line goes; and the «Salvatore Mazza in the Sicilian registers» negative, nine indexes across three comuni, has since been OVERTAKEN by Nati 1873 atto 3, so all nine were in the wrong place. The answered questions STAY on the page: one that vanishes when it is settled leaves a reader unable to tell a thing never asked from a thing asked and closed.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Scilla deaths 1838-1842 read at BOTH A and M for Litteria Morabito part	Row 170. She outlived Orazio, who died 12 July 1830, and is named without «fu» in the marriage Tavola of 4 September 1838. Each year read at TWO letters, not one: a married woman can be indexed under her husband's surname or her own.	FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS, TEN SECTIONS, AND SHE IS IN NONE OF THEM. Every M section is quoted whole on the Scilla reads page -- eight Morabito deaths across the five years, and not one is a Litteria or a Letteria. RECORDED AS PART, NOT DONE, because the window is not closed: Scilla's death series runs to 1865 in the restauration fondo and to 1943 in the Italian one, and she could have died in any of them. Containers are banked to 1844. A BY-PRODUCT WORTH KEEPING: five ARENA deaths turned up in the A sections and NONE belongs to Orazio's household -- Rocco 1838, Giuseppa 1839, Giuseppe and Santo 1841, Giuseppe 1842 -- which is a reminder that the town holds at least seven Arena families and the parents' column is the only thing that separates them.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — the 1714 Piedimonte riveli index read COMPLETE, and the running totals are what made it complete done	Row 162. Container qJkjONB, 283 images. Images 1 to 17 are a summary index -- «Nomi \| Somme di Lordo \| di Netto \| Cagione di Riveli \| folio» -- alphabetised BY GIVEN NAME, so there is no shortcut to a surname and all of it had to be read.	142 HOUSEHOLDS, AND NO MAZZA AND NO MAZZEO IN ANY OF THEM. THE READING WAS ALMOST A PARTIAL ONE. Twelve index images were read first and two of them, p7 and p9, looked like blank versos at thumbnail size. THE RUNNING TOTALS SAID OTHERWISE: p6 closes at 1468 and p8 opens with a «riporto» of 2556, which is eight households nobody had read; p8 closes at 3774 and p10 opens at 4023. Both pages were fetched at full width and hold entries 73-80 and 106-108. A DOUBLE-ENTRY BOOK CHECKS ITSELF, AND THIS ONE CAUGHT A NEGATIVE THAT WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN ELEVEN HOUSEHOLDS SHORT. SO THE SEQUENCE AT PIEDIMONTE IS: 1714, no Mazzeo and no Mazza; 1747-1748, TWO MAZZEO and no Mazza; the civil registers from 1820, Mazza and no Mazzeo. THAT IS A SHAPE AND NOT A DESCENT, and it is recorded as one: a rivelo is a TAX RETURN and a household can be absent from one without being absent from the town.
21 Sep 2026	The estate told about the Antenati name index done	Row 140. Not a Mazza finding but an estate one: Falco, Defranceschi and Lerena are reading Italian volumes the same way this archive was before it found the index.	SENT TO THE LANDING SITE FOR CIRCULATION, carrying the query form and the three cautions that each cost something here. THE QUERY: /search-nominative/?cognome=X&localita=Y&s_size=100, which returns acts with FATHER, MOTHER AND SPOUSE already extracted. THE CAUTIONS: the ACT TYPE DIFFERS BY COMUNE -- Scilla is indexed for deaths 1911-1943 and PIZZO FOR BIRTHS 1868-1903, so carrying «deaths only» across would produce a confident negative on a series indexed the other way round; «fq=» and «facets=» are SILENTLY IGNORED and return the unfiltered count, which looks like a successful filtered query; and ONLY ROWS WITH A p.morte VALUE ARE THE DECEASED -- the rest are relatives seen from inside somebody else's act, and reading them as deaths invents people with plausible names and dates. Also that «localita=» matches any place attached to a person, not the place of registration.
21 Sep 2026	The Crupi given somewhere to live on the site done	Row 77. Six documented Crupi -- Angela, her parents Francesco and Maria Vecchio, and her brothers Pietro, Antonino and Mario -- with no page, no section and no place in the four-quarters story, because they arrived through a MARRIAGE rather than a descent. Visible only as rows in a table.	A SECTION ON /brisbane/, WHICH IS WHERE THEY ACTUALLY ARE, built from additions.json so it cannot drift from the data. It carries the four things this archive knows about them that the family tree does not: that «ANGELA CUPO» is ANGELA CRUPI, born 20 December 1900; that she had THREE BROTHERS IN QUEENSLAND and nobody knew, all four registrations naming FRANCESCO CRUPI and MARIA VECCHIO; that PIETRO AND ANTONINO came into Brisbane together on the OTRANTO on 19 August 1930 as consecutive entries in the aliens register, and Angela followed on the VIMINALE in 1937 with two daughters; and that ANTONINO WAS INTERNED AT LOVEDAY, a boot repairer at Ingham with the fourth finger of his right hand deformed, born at PIEDIMONTE ETNEO -- the Mazza's own town. AND THE POINT THE SECTION CLOSES ON: Pietro's missing aliens card looked like a gap and is not one. «Alien Registration Certificate NOT ISSUED», because he was naturalised in 1932. An explained absence and an unexplained one look identical until somebody checks.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — ALL 69 Arena deaths at Scilla 1910-1943, pulled and read done	Rows 146 and 140. The query was re-run to TEST THE FORM this archive had just broadcast to three other archives -- an untested method note is untested code. It works, and it returns far more than the earlier sweep saw.	SIXTY-NINE ARENA, NOT TWENTY-SIX. The earlier sweep worked from twenty-six indexed Arena deaths; the full pull returns 152 rows which deduplicate to about sixty-nine people, every one with parents or spouse. AND THE ANSWER FOR ROW 146 HOLDS AGAINST THE LARGER SET: only TWO carry «Madre Serafina Arlotta» -- ROCCO, 8 February 1932, «Padre Francesco Antonio ... Coniuge Generosa Costa», and GIOVANNI, 31 March 1936, «Padre Antonio ... Coniuge Concetta Russo». FILIPPO AND GIUSEPPE, born 1852 and 1860, ARE IN NONE OF THE SIXTY-NINE. THE «p.morte» CAUTION IS NOW CONFIRMED BY EXAMPLE, not just asserted: the index returns «Rocco Arena -- Figlio Serafina Arena -- Atto di morte 15 Agosto 1912» AND «Serafina Arena -- Morte: Scilla, 15/08/1912 -- Padre Rocco Arena, Madre Generosa Costa». The dead child is Serafina; the first row is her father seen from inside her act. Reading it as his death would have killed Rocco Arena twenty years early, with a plausible date.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — NICOTRA at Catania, PROSTAMO at Pizzo, CASSANITI at Catania done	Three questions the name index could in principle answer: Maria Nicotra's parents, the Prostamo who stayed at Pizzo, and the real spelling of Venera Cassaneti. EACH ZERO WAS CONTROL-TESTED in the same breath against «Arena at Scilla», which returns 69.	ALL THREE ARE REAL NEGATIVES AND NOT THROTTLING. The control returned 69 risultati and 275 links; Prostamo at Pizzo and Cassaniti at Catania each returned «Nessun risultato» with thirty boilerplate links and no result count. A ZERO FROM AN OBJECT NOT VERIFIED IS NOT A NEGATIVE, IT IS NO RESULT -- the Booyzen session's phrasing, adopted. NICOTRA AT CATANIA RETURNS EIGHT DECEASED AND NOT ONE IS HERS: Concetta at Catenanuova, three Giuseppe and a Nunziata at VICOPISANO -- which is in TUSCANY. THAT IS THE «localita=» CAUTION DEMONSTRATED IN THIS ARCHIVE'S OWN DATA: the parameter matches any place attached to a person, not the place of death, so a query scoped to Catania returned people who died four hundred miles away. PROSTAMO AT PIZZO IS THE MORE SURPRISING NIL: Pizzo is name-indexed for BIRTHS 1868-1903 and this family was certainly at Pizzo -- so either the Prostamo had left by 1868 or the indexing does not reach them.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, the 1871 marriage ALLEGATI: four parents certified «vivente» done	Row 6 and row 47. The marriage of Rosario Mazza and Leonarda Bonanno (Matrimoni 1871 atto 14) was read on 13 September and the act names all four parents. What had NEVER been opened is the volume beside it -- «Matrimoni, allegati» 1871, container 0noKDq9, 83 images -- so the act was re-read to calibrate the fascicolo numbering and the bundle for act 14 was found at images 43-45.	THE TOP OF THE SICILIAN SPINE GETS A DATED PROOF OF LIFE, IN A PRINTED FIELD. Fascicolo 14 holds the «CERTIFICATO di seguita pubblicazione di matrimonio senza opposizione», published at the door of the Palazzo Comunale on SUNDAY 16 APRIL 1871. The form prints «figlio del ____» and «e della ____» and the clerk filled both blanks with the word VIVENTE: «figlio del VIVENTE MARIANO, professione bracciante, residente anche ivi -- e della VIVENTE MARIA CATALANO, professione industriosa, residente anche ivi», and for the bride «figlia del VIVENTE GAETANO, professione bracciante -- e della VIVENTE ANNA CAVALLARO, professione industriosa». FOUR PEOPLE AT GENERATION SIX, ALL ALIVE, ALL AT PIEDIMONTE, ALL WITH A TRADE -- and for Maria Catalano and Anna Cavallaro it is the FIRST record of a trade at all. MARIANO MAZZA is now documented twice in his own right: declaring Rosario's birth in June 1845 aged thirty-six, and named living and working in April 1871 aged about sixty-two. His death is after 16 April 1871, which is the first bound this archive has ever had on it. AND THE ALLEGATI ARE NOT PROCESSETTI, WHICH IS WORTH SAYING PLAINLY: the Bourbon-era «Matrimoni, processetti» at Piedimonte carry the spouses' BIRTH EXTRACTS and their dead parents' DEATH ACTS, and this archive has mined them. The Italian-era «Matrimoni, allegati» of 1871 carry the PUBLICATION CERTIFICATE and little else -- no birth extract, no death act. A researcher who reasons from the processetti to the allegati will plan a search that the volume cannot answer. What the allegati DO carry, and the processetti do not, is this printed vivente/fu field. AND THE HONEST COST: the marriage act itself had been read on 13 SEPTEMBER and written out in this very file, and I fetched the whole volume again -- twenty-odd images, the annual index, and a folio-by-folio calibration -- before checking. THE RULE IS THE ONE ROW 145 ALREADY WROTE, POINTING THE OTHER WAY: this archive is now large enough that BEFORE OPENING A VOLUME YOU GREP WHAT HAS BEEN READ. Two hundred and fourteen rows of searched.tsv exist so that the second search never happens, and they only work if somebody reads them.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Nati 1847 and 1848, both annual Tavole read end to end done	A TEST OF ONE NUMBER. The 1871 marriage act and the publication certificate beside it both make LEONARDA BONANNO «d'anni ventitré compiuti» on 16-30 April 1871, which puts her birth between April 1847 and April 1848. This archive holds her birth act as Piedimonte, Nati 1843 atto 101, 7 November 1843 -- which would make her twenty-seven. Either the age is wrong or there are TWO Leonarda Bonanno and the 1843 girl died. Containers for Nati 1846-1850 were already bought, so the test cost images only. Both annual Tavole read in the original at the child-name column, every entry, no sampling.	THE 1843 ACT STANDS AND THE AGE IS FOUR YEARS OUT. 1847 runs 1 to 116 and 1848 runs 1 to 144 -- two hundred and sixty consecutive entries, all read -- and NEITHER YEAR HOLDS A LEONARDA BONANNO. 1847 holds no Bonanno at all; 1848 holds one, BONANNO MARIA at act 99. There is no second Leonarda, so the woman who married Rosario Mazza is the girl born 7 November 1843 and both 1871 documents understate her by four years. AND THE TWO DOCUMENTS ARE NOT TWO WITNESSES. The marriage act and the publication certificate agree on «ventitré», and the agreement is worth nothing: the same uffiziale wrote both, in the same fortnight, from the same declaration. This archive counts independent confirmations, and here is a pair that LOOKS independent -- different volume, different form, different date -- and is one statement written twice. AND THE SWEEP PAID THREE TIMES OVER, WHICH IS THE ARGUMENT FOR READING THE WHOLE TAVOLA RATHER THAN SCANNING FOR ONE NAME. (1) Nati 1847 atto 31 is «MAZZA SEBASTIANO -- Mazza Innocenzio / Cavallaro Domenica», the first child ever found for the couple in row 93, whose marriage this archive had written off as possibly unreachable. They were at Piedimonte and having children in 1847. (2) Nati 1848 atto 45 is «CASSANITI VENERA -- Cassaniti Gaetano / Venuti Maria», born the 14th -- the right name, the right town and a plausible date for MARIA NICOTRA'S MOTHER, the woman row 161 has been unable to touch. A candidate, not a conclusion. (3) A NAMESAKE TRAP CAUGHT IN THE ACT. What I first read as «Bonanno Mariano» at 1847 act 30 is «BONACCORSO Mariano», son of BONACCORSO GAETANO and Lucia Grasso -- and 1848 act 46 gives the same couple a Francesco. Piedimonte held a Gaetano Bonanno AND a Gaetano Bonaccorso at the same time, and this archive has ALREADY miscopied one for the other once, in the 1877 and 1880 birth rows of pe-mazza-acts.tsv. The zoom that corrected me is the whole method: I had read the name off a 620-pixel band and it was wrong.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1871: the whole annual index read, and no NICOTRA done	Row 161, row 47, row 89. While calibrating the 1871 marriage volume the annual index was read in full -- both openings, both halves of the DUPLICATA, all twenty-six acts accounted for. The question put to it: is the marriage of GIOVANNI NICOTRA and VENERA CASSANITI here?	IT IS NOT, AND THE NEGATIVE IS COMPLETE RATHER THAN PARTIAL. The 1871 «Indice Annuale per gli atti DI MATRIMONIO» names BOTH SPOUSES for every act -- groom on the upper line, bride on the lower -- and all twenty-six are legible across two openings: Monte/Cannavò 1, Previtera/Papurri 2, Pagano/Greco 3, Trovato/Spina 4, Difranceso/Cernuto 5, Messina/Parisi 6, Caltabiano/Cardile 7, Maccarone/Intelisano 8, Cavallaro/Cannavò 9, Chiavia/Gambino 10, Maugeri/Zappalardo 11, Cassanoti/Amante 12, Pennisi/Sapienza 13, MAZZA/BONANNO 14, D'Ignoto/Cassumi 15, Cipriano/Pagano 16, Papurri/Mangeri 17, Scandurra/Consolo 18, Cannavò/Caruso 19, Russo/Sanderi 20, Petrino/Ferrito 21, Russo/Fazio 22, Navarro/Costarino 23, Vecchio/Cavallaro 24, Patanè/Guarnera 25, Greco/Cardile 26. NO NICOTRA GROOM AND NO CASSANITI BRIDE. (There IS a «Cassanoti Giovanni» at act 12 -- he marries an AMANTE ROSARIA, not a Cassaniti, and the spelling is a reminder of how loosely this town's clerks handled the name.) AND THIS OPENS A ROUTE ROW 161 HAD NOT GOT. Row 161 spent fourteen consecutive years on the Piedimonte BIRTH indexes hunting Maria Nicotra and found nothing; the MARRIAGE index is a different instrument and a far cheaper one -- ONE PAGE-PAIR PER YEAR, both spouses named, no act need be opened to eliminate a year. Sweeping Piedimonte marriages 1866-1885 for a NICOTRA groom is now a bounded job of about twenty crops. Only the 1871 container is bought; the rest are one batched container lookup away.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Piedimonte Etneo, Matrimoni 1872 atto 20: GIOVANNI NICOTRA and VENERA CASSANITI done	Rows 47, 89, 161 and the brand-new row 172. The Piedimonte marriage index names BOTH spouses, one page-pair a year, so a year is eliminated without opening an act. Containers were banked for 1870 and 1872-1875 and the sweep began at 1870. 1870's N section holds one line -- «Nucifora Michele, Lo Coco Nicoletta, 15» -- and 1871's whole index of twenty-six couples had already been read clean. 1872 is the second year tried.	FOUND, IN THE SECOND YEAR OF A SWEEP THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN RUN WEEKS AGO. The N section of the 1872 annual index reads «NICOTRA GIOVANNI, E CASSANITI VENERA -- 20», and act 20 is legible whole on one page. «L'anno milleottocento settantadue, nel giorno SETTE del mese di OTTOBRE, alle ore nove antemeridiane, nella Casa Comunale ... sono comparsi GIOVANNI NICOTRA, di anni TRENTUNO, di professione bracciante, DOMICILIATO E RESIDENTE A MASCALI, figlio di ROSARIO, di professione bracciante, e di VENERA MURABITO, contadina, domiciliati e residenti PURE IN MASCALI. E VENERA CASSANITI, di anni VENTIQUATTRO, qui domiciliata e residente, figlia del FU GAETANO, e di FU MARIA CURRENTI.» Witnesses Salvadore Dadone d'Ignoto, 60, and Venerando Papurri FU Ignazio, 41, braccianti. Sindaco Barone Mariano Dottor Vocy. FOUR NEW PEOPLE AT GENERATION SIX, on the two lines this archive called the side nobody has ever searched -- ROSARIO NICOTRA and VENERA MURABITO of Mascali, both living; GAETANO CASSANITI and MARIA CURRENTI of Piedimonte, both dead. The «fu» is doing real work here and it is CONTROL-TESTED INSIDE THE ACT ITSELF: the same clerk writes «Venerando Papurri FU Ignazio» two lines above, so its absence over the Nicotra parents is a statement and not an omission. AND IT EXPLAINS FOURTEEN EMPTY YEARS. Row 161 read the Piedimonte birth indexes of 1870 through 1883 -- fourteen consecutive annual indexes, every N section quoted -- hunting Maria Nicotra, and the Nicotra are there the whole time and never produce her. THE REASON IS IN THIS ACT: her father was a MASCALI man. A wife went to her husband's comune, so the children of this marriage were registered at MASCALI, a comune this archive has never opened and never listed. The Catania hypothesis was not needed and the tree's «born Piedimonte» is her mother's town, not hers. AND THE IDENTIFICATION IS NOT CIRCULAR, WHICH MATTERS BECAUSE «Giovanni Nicotra» IS A COMMON NAME. The family's own export -- parsed long before any of this -- gives John Nicotra and Venera Cassaneti SEVEN children, and one of them is a ROSARIO NICOTRA. A first son takes the paternal grandfather's name, and the paternal grandfather in this act is Rosario. The archive held the grandson's name for years and could not have derived the grandfather's from it. Add the bride's uncommon surname, her age fitting Nati 1848 atto 45 to the year, and the province, and the join carries. ONE LOOSE END, LEFT OPEN: the 1898 marriage proclamation at Piedimonte calls Maria Nicotra's mother «MONTI VENERA». That is now a three-way conflict -- Monti, Cassaneti, Cassaniti -- and this act settles only the second and third. Row 89 keeps it.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — MASCALI listed whole, and MARIA NICOTRA'S BIRTH ACT found in the second year read done	Row 173, opened an hour earlier off the 1872 marriage act, which put Giovanni Nicotra «domiciliato e residente a MASCALI». Mascali had never been listed, never been searched and was not in any ark bank. Listed with ?localita=Mascali&s_size=500, then the annual birth indexes read at the N section -- 1873 first (the year after the marriage), then 1875 (the year the Queensland death registration implies).	THE LISTING IS COMPLETE AND SAYS SO. 498 results, 498 distinct arks, and the facets read «Archivio di Stato di Catania (452)» and «Archivio di Stato di Palermo (46)» -- 452+46=498, so this is the whole holding and not a sample at the ceiling. All 498 rows are written to data/mascali-arks.tsv rather than summarised, because the listing costs a rate-limited page load and the second one is the expensive one. WHAT MASCALI HAS. Civil registration 1820-1893, the same span as Piedimonte: restaurazione 1820-1865 (Nati, Morti, Matrimoni, Nati esposti, Diversi, and from 1841 the MATRIMONI PROCESSETTI with their birth extracts), italiano 1866-1893. AND FORTY-SIX VOLUMES AT PALERMO that are not civil registration at all: RIVELI DI BENI E DI ANIME from the Tribunale del Real Patrimonio for 1616, 1625, 1636, 1652 and 1676-78, and RIVELI DI ANIME E DI TERRE from the Deputazione del Regno for 1714 and 1747-1752 in twenty-nine volumes. Piedimonte's riveli begin in 1714; MASCALI'S BEGIN IN 1616, a century earlier, and this archive has an instrument for reading them. ONE GAP RECORDED RATHER THAN SMOOTHED: the restaurazione run has NO 1844 -- it goes 1843, then 1845, in every series. 1873 CONFIRMED THE TOWN ON THE FIRST TRY. Its index is alphabetical AND carries a PATERNITA column, so a household identifies itself without opening an act. The N section: Nicotra Giovanni 23 February (padre Giuseppe), Neri Giuseppe 20 March (Salvatore), Nicotra Grazia 29 June (Alfio), Nicolosi Angelo 14 October (Giuseppe), and NICOTRA VENERA, 12 DECEMBER 1873, PATERNITA GIOVANNI -- fourteen months after the marriage, and the family's own export gives Giovanni and Venera a daughter VENERA. THEN 1875, AND IT IS HER. The 1875 index has no paternita column, so the act had to be opened. «Nicotra Maria -- 144». Nati 1875 atto 144, read in the original: «L'anno milleottocento settantacinque, addi DIECI di DICEMBRE, a ore antemeridiane otto e minuti quindici, nella Casa comunale. Avanti di me Gaetano Sacla, Sindaco ed Ufficiale dello Stato Civile del Comune di MASCALI, e comparso GIOVANNI NICOTRA, di anni ventotto, lavorante, domiciliato in Mascali, il quale mi ha dichiarato che alle ore pomeridiane NOVE e minuti TRENTA, del di OTTO del corrente mese, nella casa posta in contrada Sopra Pietrafitta al numero ..., da VENERA CASSANITI sua moglie, ambedue residenti in questo Comune di Mascali, e nata una bambina di sesso femminile che egli mi presenta, e a cui da il nome di MARIA.» Witnesses Gaetano Cardillo, 30, and Salvatore Leo, 30, both lavoranti. MARIA NICOTRA WAS BORN AT MASCALI ON 8 DECEMBER 1875 AT HALF PAST NINE IN THE EVENING. She died at Brisbane in 1963 aged eighty-eight, which the date fits exactly. The tree's «born Piedimonte Etneo» is her mother's town. ONE DISCREPANCY, RECORDED NOT HIDDEN: her father is «di anni trentuno» at his marriage in October 1872 and «di anni ventotto» here in December 1875 -- six years the wrong way in three years. Declared ages, again, and of the same kind as Leonarda Bonanno's four. THE IDENTIFICATION DOES NOT REST ON HIS AGE: it rests on the wife, VENERA CASSANITI, an uncommon pairing named in both acts, on the comune, and on a birth date that matches her Queensland death to the year.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Mascali births 1874, 1876 and 1877 swept for the other Nicotra children part	Row 173. Giovanni Nicotra and Venera Cassaniti married 7 October 1872 and the family's own export gives them SEVEN children -- Maria, Rosa, Venera, Nina, Angela, Rosario, Antonina. Two are now placed: Venera (Nati 1873) and Maria (Nati 1875 atto 144). The years either side were read at the N section, every entry.	ONE TRUE NEGATIVE AND TWO YEARS THAT CANNOT BE CALLED EITHER WAY -- AND THE DIFFERENCE IS A COLUMN. 1874's index HAS a «PATERNITA» column, so the year answers the question directly. Its N section is two lines: «Neri Francesco, 1 marzo 1874, Domenico» and «NICOTRA MARIA, 28 detto, GAETANO». NO CHILD OF GIOVANNI IN 1874 -- a real negative, because the instrument names the father. AND THAT SAME LINE IS THE NAMESAKE TRAP CAUGHT IN THE ACT: Mascali registered TWO MARIA NICOTRAS EIGHTEEN MONTHS APART, one to a Gaetano in March 1874 and ours to Giovanni in December 1875. An index entry alone would have been a coin toss; opening act 144 is the only reason the right one is on the spine. 1876 AND 1877 HAVE NO PATERNITA COLUMN, and that changes the status of the reading completely. 1876's N section is five lines -- Neri Giuseppe 25, NICOTRA GIUSEPPA 81, Nicolosi Mariano 87, Nicolosi Rosario 144, Neri Lucia 170. 1877's is three -- NICOTRA MARIANO 10, NICOTRA ROSARIA 8, Nucifora Mariano 132. «Giuseppa» is not among the seven children the export names, so 1876 is probably not theirs; «ROSARIA» in 1877 may well be the ROSA the export carries. BUT NEITHER YEAR CAN BE SETTLED WITHOUT OPENING THE ACTS, and until they are opened these are READ AND UNRESOLVED -- not negatives. That is the status row 171 says this archive cannot currently write, and here are three years that need it. 1877's N section also ENDS AT THE FOOT OF ITS COLUMN, which is where this archive has produced a false negative before: the next column was checked and begins at P, so the section is complete at three entries. Acts 8 and 10 of 1877 fall within days of each other in January, so they are either twins or two households -- another reason not to guess.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati name index — this archive's own nils re-tested with the suspect parameter removed done	Acting on the Lerena archive's caution that a control licenses the SHAPE of a query and says nothing about the VALUE -- its own parent-pair zero survived a passing control and was false, because the mother's surname sat unparsed in a given-name field. This archive has four name-index nils on record. Each was re-run with «localita» REMOVED, and the raw page inspected rather than a count regex.	THE NILS STAND, THE METHOD THAT TESTED THEM DID NOT, AND THE MEANING OF THE NILS WAS WRONG. (1) THEY ARE GENUINE. «cognome=Cassaniti» with no locality at all returns «NESSUN RISULTATO TROVATO. La tua ricerca per nome non ha prodotto risultati!» -- prose, not a count. Same for Prostamo. Musolino at Scilla still returns 7, so the form works. The extra parameter was NOT hiding anything here. (2) BUT THE DETECTOR WAS BROKEN AND GOT THE RIGHT ANSWER BY ACCIDENT. This archive reads a result count by matching «N risultati». THE ZERO PAGE DOES NOT CONTAIN THAT STRING AT ALL -- it is a 266 KB page whose count is a sentence. So «no match» from the regex was indistinguishable from a throttled page, a broken selector or a real zero, and the three were told apart only because the link count was also taken. ANY ZERO FROM THIS INSTRUMENT MUST BE CONFIRMED BY THE PRESENCE OF «Nessun risultato trovato», NOT BY THE ABSENCE OF A COUNT. (3) AND THE INTERPRETATION WAS THE REAL ERROR. «Cassaniti returns nothing» was recorded on 21 September as a real negative about this family. IT IS NOT A FACT ABOUT THE FAMILY. Within hours of that entry this archive read CASSANITI GAETANO in the Piedimonte birth Tavola of 1848 and VENERA CASSANITI in two acts -- Piedimonte Matrimoni 1872 atto 20 and Mascali Nati 1875 atto 144. The people are demonstrably in the registers and the name index returns zero for them ACROSS THE WHOLE OF ITALY. The explanation is already in this archive's own coverage notes: Piedimonte and Mascali are NOT NAME-INDEXED. So the nil means «this comune has not been indexed», not «this person is not there», and the two look identical from inside the query. THAT IS THE STATUS ROW 171 IS ABOUT, demonstrated against this archive's own data three hours after the nil was filed: an instrument was read correctly, the source was empty, and the emptiness was a fact about the INSTRUMENT.
21 Sep 2026	A checker for the nils — 27 of this archive's own cannot be checked by a reader done	The Lerena archive put its own coverage failures beside this archive's and found that «not covered» is THREE different faults rendering ONE identical empty page: at the COLLECTION (the corpus holds no parish registers at all), at the QUERY SHAPE (a compound surname exact matching cannot reach), and at a SINGLE FIELD (a value the source failed to parse, which then excludes the records that display it). Only the third is ever evidence about a family. And the part of a nil that ages well is neither the query nor the count -- it is the sentence saying WHAT THE INSTRUMENT COULD HAVE REACHED. Only one of that archive's four published nulls survived scrutiny, and it survived because its control had established the parish books were indexed and dated.	WRITTEN AS tools/check_nils.py AND RUN AGAINST THIS ARCHIVE, WHICH IT DOES NOT FLATTER. Of 220 searched rows, 173 assert no nil, 20 assert a nil AND say what the instrument could reach -- AND 27 ASSERT A NIL WITH NO REACHABILITY SENTENCE AT ALL. They may every one be sound. The point is that a reader cannot tell, and neither can this archive a week later: «Trove -- Prostamo before 1954», «Find a Grave -- Prostamo and Melluso across Australia», «TNA Discovery -- every surname and town of this family», «Antenati -- Archivio di Stato di Messina, whole province». Each of those is a sentence about a family that may be a sentence about a search engine. THE CHECKER CANNOT JUDGE WHETHER THE SENTENCE IS TRUE -- only somebody who checked the coverage knows that -- so it is ADVISORY and exits 0. It makes the gap visible and finite instead of invisible and assumed empty, which is the same job check_grades.py does for dashed parent edges. It is wired into the build after check:searched. AND THE HONEST NOTE ABOUT ITS OWN ACCURACY: the nil-detecting regex is deliberately narrow and the reachability regex deliberately broad, so it will UNDER-report rather than over-report. A row it passes is not certified; a row it flags is worth a minute. AND THE NUMBER 27 WAS WRONG, WHICH IS THE POINT OF THE TOOL TURNED ON ITS AUTHOR. It was published straight out of a regex written the same hour and never tested against the rows it judges. Testing it took twenty minutes and moved it to NINE. THREE KINDS OF ERROR, ALL MINE. (1) THE NIL PATTERN MATCHED ROWS FULL OF FINDINGS: «not one» caught «NOT ONE AT NUDGEE» inside a Find a Grave row that reports ELEVEN BURIALS with plot numbers. A checker built to catch unfalsifiable claims had made one. (2) THE REACH PATTERN MISSED PLAIN ENGLISH: three rows state their boundary perfectly -- «BT 26 and BT 27 cover UK PORTS ONLY», «CIVIL REGISTRATION IN THE PROVINCE OF MESSINA BEGINS IN 1820», «this family moved Italy to Australia and never through Britain» -- and were flagged because the word «coverage» was absent. The fix was to look for a BOUNDARY of place, date or record type rather than for a vocabulary. (3) AND I THEN WROTE THAT IT WOULD «UNDER-REPORT RATHER THAN OVER-REPORT», WHICH WAS BACKWARDS. It over-reported by three to one. THREE ROWS HAVE SINCE BEEN GIVEN THE SENTENCE THEY LACKED, and two of them needed it badly: the Piedimonte birth-index sweeps for Maria Nicotra now say outright that the instrument could only ever reach children registered at Piedimonte, and she was registered at MASCALI. NINE REMAIN.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Mascali, Nati 1841 and 1847: Giovanni Nicotra is in neither part	Row 173. Giovanni Nicotra gave TWO ages three years apart -- «di anni trentuno» at his marriage on 7 October 1872 (born about 1841) and «di anni ventotto» at his daughter Maria's birth on 10 December 1875 (born about 1847). His own birth act would settle which, and would carry his parents ROSARIO NICOTRA and VENERA MURABITO independently of the marriage act. Both candidate years were read at Mascali. THE INSTRUMENT: the Bourbon-era «Tavola Alfabetica annuale de' Nati», alphabetical by surname, with columns Num d'ordine, Cognomi e Nomi de' NATI, PATRIA, Cognomi e Nomi de' GENITORI, Giorno della Nascita. IT NAMES BOTH PARENTS, so a Giovanni Nicotra of Rosario and Venera Murabito would identify itself without an act being opened.	HE IS IN NEITHER, AND BOTH SECTIONS ARE COMPLETE. 1841's N section is ONE LINE: «87. Nicolosi Salvadore -- Nicolosi Francesco / Mercurio Francesca -- 24 Dicembre 1841». The O section beneath it is empty and the page ends. 1847's N section is TWO LINES: «3. Nicolosi Domenico -- Nicolosi D. Francesco / Mercurio D.a Francesca -- 3 Gennaio 1847» and «69. NICOTRA MARIA -- Nicotra Alfio / Sudani Carmela -- 23 Luglio 1847». Then an empty O section, then P. In both years the section's END was checked in the next letter before anything was written down, which is the rule this archive has already paid for twice. WHAT THIS DOES AND DOES NOT ESTABLISH. It establishes that NO GIOVANNI NICOTRA WAS REGISTERED AT MASCALI IN 1841 OR 1847 -- the only two years his own two statements point to. It does NOT establish that he was born elsewhere: this archive has now watched the same man lose six years between two acts, and Leonarda Bonanno lose four between a birth act and a marriage, so a declared age is a bracket and not a date. THE NEXT STEP IS THE REST OF THE BRACKET: Mascali Nati 1838-1850, ten more annual Tavole, each one crop. THE REACH, STATED: these are Mascali's own birth registers for those two years, read at the only section that could hold him, in a table that names both parents. If he was born in another comune -- and his wife's household was at Piedimonte, eight kilometres away -- no Mascali Tavola will ever hold him. AND ONE NAME WORTH REMEMBERING: NICOTRA ALFIO fathered a Maria at Mascali in 1847, and an ALFIO NICOTRA fathered the 1875 Piedimonte Maria Nicotra who is NOT ours. Not pursued, not claimed.
21 Sep 2026	The Atlas layers checked — a ramp in the wrong order, a colour decided by row order, and Zambrone missing done	A peer session added three Atlas layers to this repository (commit 80ce21e, tools/atlas.py and site/src/pages/atlas.astro, nothing else touched) and explicitly left one judgement to this archive. The commit was pulled and read rather than accepted: the diff, the ramp, the join key, and every count it asserts.	THE WORK IS SOUND AND THREE THINGS WERE WRONG. (1) THE RAMP WAS IN THE WRONG ORDER, which was the judgement offered. It had `route` as WORSE than `partial`. build_coverage.py's own docstring defines `route` as «reachable, but through a different archive» and `partial` as «the listing itself is incomplete, so NOTHING IS SETTLED», and the rows bear it out: `route` is Piedimonte past 1893, waiting in the Tribunale's duplicate for Catania, named and findable; `partial` is Briatico, EIGHTY-ONE ROWS HELD AGAINST FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE AVAILABLE, where nobody knows what is in the rest. A known errand beats not knowing what you are looking at. Swapped, and both labels rewritten to say which is which. (2) A BUG NEITHER OF US HAD LOOKED FOR, AND IT IS THIS ARCHIVE'S OWN FAVOURITE SHAPE. A comune has one coverage row PER SERIES and they disagree -- Piedimonte has SIX `open` and one `route`. The code assigned with `=`, so the colour was decided by WHICHEVER ROW SAT LAST IN THE FILE. It rendered correctly for all seven comuni on the day it was written, and would have turned Piedimonte green the moment somebody appended an `open` row beneath its `route` one. A silent change of meaning caused by the ORDER OF A DATA FILE. Fixed to take the WORST status, ranked explicitly, and TESTED BY REVERSING coverage.json AND RE-RUNNING: byte-identical output, seven comuni unchanged. (3) ZAMBRONE IS NOT ON THE MAP AT ALL, which is why twelve of thirteen coverage rows matched and not thirteen. The reason is structural and bigger than the Atlas: THE MAP'S PLACES COME FROM THE EXPORT'S PEOPLE, and Zambrone holds no exported person. Its people -- the whole Ventrice line -- exist only in documented-additions.tsv, which now runs to 115 rows and includes every person this archive has added from a register: Mariano Mazza, Maria Catalano, Rosario Nicotra, Venera Murabito, Gaetano Cassaniti, Maria Currenti. ALL OF THEM ARE INVISIBLE ON THE ATLAS. The counts the peer asserted were checked and are right: 18 of 20 burials land on a drawn place, the two that do not are Arneytown, and the coverage join is on the same `head()` the roster uses, which work-list 158 says is the thing that silently drops people when it changes.
21 Sep 2026	The reversal test run across this archive's own builders — one real fault, in the questions done	The Atlas fold bug found yesterday was a many-to-one join written with `=`, invisible because it rendered correctly on the day it was written. The peer session that introduced it checked its own estate for more of the class and found none. THIS ARCHIVE OWED ITSELF THE SAME CHECK, and by hand rather than by eye: tools/check_order.py reverses each data/*.tsv, re-runs the builder that reads it, and compares the output.	EIGHT BUILDER/INPUT PAIRS TESTED, ONE REAL FAULT, AND IT WAS IN THE QUESTIONS. build_questions.py numbered each question with `enumerate(rows, start=1)` -- THE ROW'S POSITION -- and the kit RENDERS that number, as «{r.n ?? i + 1}». So inserting a question anywhere but the end silently renumbered every question below it, and anyone who cited «question 7» was pointing at a different question the next day. Nothing had gone wrong yet and nothing would have looked wrong when it did. FIXED THE WAY THE WORK LIST ALREADY DOES IT: `n` is now an explicit column in questions.tsv, assigned once and never reused, and the builder REFUSES a row whose `n` is missing, non-numeric or duplicated -- both refusals tested by breaking the file on purpose. All eight pairs now give identical output on reversed input. AND THE TEST ITSELF HAD TO BE FIXED TWICE BEFORE IT WAS WORTH TRUSTING. (1) It read the source file INSIDE `open(src, "w")`, which truncates first, so it got an empty file and died; the restore in `finally` is the only reason that cost nothing. (2) FAR MORE IMPORTANT, IT FIRST COMPARED BYTES, and six of eight pairs «failed» because most of these builders emit a LIST in file order -- reversing the input reverses the list, the bytes differ, and every one of those six was benign. A BYTE COMPARISON CANNOT TELL PRESENTATION FROM DATA LOSS. The fault worth catching is a fold in which one row overwrites another, and that shows up as a CHANGED VALUE or a VANISHED KEY, never as a reordering. The test now canonicalises both outputs by sorting every list by its own contents and compares the SET OF FACTS. Six false alarms became one true one. NOT WIRED INTO `npm run build`, deliberately: it temporarily rewrites tracked data files and restores them in a `finally`, which survives an exception but not a kill, and a build killed mid-check would leave a reversed data file looking like an edit. It is `npm run check:order`, run on purpose. AND A QUESTION WENT GREEN ON THE WAY PAST: «Where was Maria Nicotra born?» had been open since the archive was built and was answered this morning -- MASCALI, Nati 1875 atto 144. Four open now, not five.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Mascali, the hunt for Rosario Nicotra's household: Matrimoni 1840 clean, and a torn Tavola part	Row 173, reaching for GENERATION SEVEN. Rosario Nicotra and Venera Murabito are known only from inside their son's marriage act of 1872. Their OWN marriage would name all four of THEIR parents, because Mascali's restauration marriage Tavola is alphabetical by groom and carries a four-line parents column -- groom's father, groom's mother, bride's father, bride's mother -- with the dead marked «fu». One Tavola read per year. Giovanni was born about 1841 or 1847 on his own two statements, so the marriage brackets to roughly 1830-1845.	1840 IS A CLEAN NEGATIVE AND THE METHOD IS PROVED. The Tavola of Matrimoni 1840 is alphabetical, names both spouses and ALL FOUR PARENTS, and its N section is ONE ENTRY: «10. Nicolosi Francesco / Mercurio Francesca -- Nicolosi Domenico, Mercurio Angela, Mercurio Pietro, Bassi Maria». The section's end was checked on the facing page, which opens at P. NO NICOTRA MARRIAGE AT MASCALI IN 1840. AND A CHANGE OF PLAN WORTH RECORDING. Hunting one marriage across fifteen years is the expensive way; the BIRTH Tavole name both parents too, so a single «Nicotra [X] -- Nicotra Rosario / Murabito Venera» would place the household AND bracket the marriage from below. That is the sweep to run, and its containers are banked: Mascali Nati 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, plus Matrimoni 1840 -- FIFTEEN MASCALI CONTAINERS NOW HELD, so the remaining work is reading rather than rate-limited fetching. AND ONE PHYSICAL CONDITION THAT IS NOT A NEGATIVE. THE 1842 BIRTH TAVOLA IS TORN, and the archive's own card says so: «Torn Page(s)». The surviving leaf carries the R and S sections with the head of the page lost, and the M-to-P run sits on the damaged side. 1842 CANNOT BE READ AS A NEGATIVE FOR NICOTRA -- the section that would hold them is missing, not empty. Recorded as a condition of the volume rather than a result, which is the distinction row 171 exists for. THE REACH, STATED: 1840's marriage Tavola is Mascali's own, complete, alphabetical, and names four parents a couple; it can only ever answer for marriages celebrated AT MASCALI in that year. If Rosario Nicotra married in his wife's comune, no Mascali Tavola will hold it.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — Mascali births 1839–1848, every N section read: the only Nicotra at Mascali is ALFIO'S done	Row 173. Giovanni Nicotra is «domiciliato e residente a MASCALI» at his marriage in 1872 and his parents ROSARIO NICOTRA and VENERA MURABITO are «residenti pure in Mascali», yet he is in neither of the two years his own declared ages point to. The question this sweep puts: WAS ROSARIO'S HOUSEHOLD AT MASCALI AT ALL in the 1840s? The instrument answers it directly, because Mascali's Bourbon-era «Tavola Alfabetica annuale de' Nati» is alphabetical by surname and NAMES BOTH PARENTS -- so a single «Nicotra [X] -- Nicotra Rosario / Murabito Venera» would settle it without an act being opened. Every surviving year of the decade was read at the N section, and in each the section's END was checked into the next letter before anything was written down.	NINE YEARS, EIGHT READABLE, AND ROSARIO NICOTRA'S HOUSEHOLD IS IN NONE OF THEM. 1839: THERE IS NO N SECTION AT ALL -- M (Musumeci, Marano, Maccarrone, Mangano, Mercurio, Marchese, Mannino) runs straight into P (Patane), so not one child of any N surname was born at Mascali that year. 1840: three entries -- NICOTRA VENERA (padre ALFIO, madre Carmela Sudieri, 11 May), Nicolosi Mariancola (Nicolosi Francesco / Mercurio Gioacchina), Nicolosi Leonardo (Nicolosi Salvadore / Finocchiaro Venera). 1841: one entry, Nicolosi Salvadore (Nicolosi Francesco / Mercurio Francesca, 24 December). 1842: THE VOLUME IS TORN and the archive's own card says so; the surviving leaf carries R and S with the head of the page lost and the M-to-P run on the damaged side. NOT READABLE, AND NOT A NEGATIVE. 1843: the N section is HEADED AND COMPLETELY EMPTY, and so is the O beneath it. 1845: one entry, Nicolosi Giovanna (Nicolosi Salvadore / Finocchiaro Venera, 22 April). 1846: N HEADED AND EMPTY again. 1847: two entries, Nicolosi Domenico and NICOTRA MARIA (padre ALFIO, madre Sudani Carmela, 23 July). 1848: one entry, Neri Antonina (Neri Leonardo / Borzi Maria, 11 July). (1844 does not exist in this series at all -- the gap recorded when Mascali was listed.) SO THE ONLY NICOTRA HOUSEHOLD AT MASCALI IN THAT DECADE IS ALFIO NICOTRA AND CARMELA SUDIERI, who appear in 1840 and again in 1847. ROSARIO NICOTRA AND VENERA MURABITO ARE ABSENT FROM EVERY READABLE YEAR. WHAT THAT MEANS, STATED CAREFULLY. It does NOT mean they are not the people named in the 1872 act -- that act is read and unambiguous. It means THEY WERE NOT AT MASCALI IN THE 1840s, and therefore GIOVANNI NICOTRA WAS ALMOST CERTAINLY NOT BORN THERE. The household came to Mascali between about 1848 and 1872. His birthplace is a comune this archive has not yet identified, and the way to it is his own marriage ALLEGATI -- the 1872 publication certificate, which in this province prints the spouses' birthplaces -- not another Mascali sweep. THE REACH, STATED: these are Mascali's own birth registers for nine consecutive years, read at the only section that could hold the surname, in a table that names both parents. They can answer for Mascali and for nothing else. AND ALFIO NICOTRA IS WORTH A LINE: an ALFIO NICOTRA also fathered the 1875 Piedimonte Maria Nicotra who is NOT ours. Whether the Mascali Alfio and the Piedimonte Alfio are one man is untested and nothing is claimed.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — the 1872 marriage allegati: GIOVANNI NICOTRA WAS BORN AT GIARRE done	Nine consecutive Mascali birth Tavole, 1839-1848, put Rosario Nicotra's household nowhere in the town, so Giovanni was not born there and the question became WHERE. The instrument was already proved this morning on Rosario Mazza: the Italian-era «Matrimoni, allegati» hold a printed «CERTIFICATO DI SEGUITA PUBBLICAZIONE DI MATRIMONIO» which, in the 1872 form, prints «nato a ____» SEPARATELY FROM «residente a ____» for each spouse. Piedimonte's 1872 allegati, container LDmQaWG, 85 images.	«NATO A GIARRE», AND A SIXTH TOWN ENTERS THE ARCHIVE. The bundle for act 20 is at images 71-74, found by reading a neighbouring certificate rather than by hunting wrapper numbers -- image 65 is fascicolo 19, «Salvadore Scipelliti (nato a BRONTE) e Antonia Zumbo (nata a Piedimonte Etneo)», which matches the annual index entry for act 19 and fixes the count. THE CERTIFICATE, read in the original: «TRA GIOVANNI NICOTRA -- NATO A GIARRE -- residente a MASCALI -- di professione bracciante -- di eta anni TRENTUNO -- figlio di ROSARIO, di professione bracciante, residente a Mascali, e di VENERA MURABITO, di professione contadina, residente a Mascali. E VENERA CASSANITI -- NATA A PIEDIMONTE ETNEO -- residente a Piedimonte Etneo -- di professione contadina -- di eta anni VENTIQUATTRO -- figlia di FU GAETANO e di FU MARIA CURRENTI.» Published at Mascali, «Fatto oggi in Mascali il di CINQUE del mese di SETTEMBRE dell'anno 1872», signed Di Leonardo -- the groom's own comune, as the code required. THE WHOLE SHAPE OF THE SICILIAN QUARTER IS NOW VISIBLE: Giovanni Nicotra born at GIARRE about 1841, living at MASCALI by 1872 with his parents; Venera Cassaniti born at PIEDIMONTE ETNEO in 1848; married at Piedimonte 7 October 1872; their daughter MARIA born at MASCALI 8 December 1875; Maria marries Salvatore Mazza of Piedimonte about 1900 and dies at Brisbane in 1963. FOUR COMUNI IN ONE WOMAN'S DESCENT, and the family tree recorded one of them. AND IT EXPLAINS THE NINE EMPTY MASCALI YEARS EXACTLY: the household came from Giarre, which is the next comune down the coast.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — GIARRE listed whole, and s_size=500 is a PAGE, not a ceiling done	Giarre had never been listed. The first query, ?localita=Giarre&s_size=500, returned 500 arks and a facet total of 808 -- the exact trap this archive's own note warns about, a listing sitting at the ceiling and therefore a SAMPLE rather than a holding.	AND THE CEILING TURNS OUT NOT TO BE ONE. «&s_page=2» returns the remaining 308, and 500+308 = 808 = the facet total exactly. THIS ARCHIVE'S STANDING NOTE WAS WRONG: s_size=500 is a PAGE SIZE, not a limit on what can be retrieved, and any holding larger than 500 is reachable in two loads instead of being permanently a sample. THE CORRECTION MATTERS BEYOND GIARRE: Briatico is recorded in antenati-coverage.tsv as «THE WORST UNDER-LISTING IN THE ARCHIVE: eighty-one rows held against 555 available», and that under-listing was accepted as a wall. IT IS NOT A WALL. It is two page loads. GIARRE'S HOLDING, banked whole in data/giarre-arks.tsv: 808 volumes, ALL AT CATANIA, 1820-1873, and it is a bigger comune than any other in this archive -- 164 Nati volumes, 147 Morti, 131 Matrimoni, 44 Matrimoni processetti, 42 Matrimoni allegati, plus Cittadinanze and their allegati. IT HOLDS TWO COPIES OF EVERY YEAR -- e.g. Nati 1841 as an_ua68999 (segnatura 15941) and an_ua19993253 (segnatura 16345) -- so a damaged or missing leaf in one may survive in the other, which is a resource this archive has not had anywhere else. AND UNLIKE MASCALI IT HAS 1844. FIRST YEAR READ: Nati 1841, container 5dZj97v, 226 images, annual Tavola alphabetical at the back. ITS M SECTION RUNS STRAIGHT INTO O -- THERE IS NO N SECTION AT ALL -- so no Nicotra was born at Giarre in 1841. (A row I first read as «Nicolosi Salvadore» at 207 is MIGLIERINO Salvadore, still in M; corrected at full width before anything was written down.) His two declared ages differ by six years, so the window 1838-1848 must be swept, not the single year.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — GIARRE births 1838–1848, every N section read: the only Nicotra there is a DON part	Row 177. The 1872 publication certificate says Giovanni Nicotra was «NATO A GIARRE», and his two declared ages differ by six years, so the window is a bracket and not a year. Eleven consecutive annual Tavole read at the N section — 1838 to 1848, every year the series holds. Giarre's Tavola is alphabetical and NAMES BOTH PARENTS, so a Nicotra of a ROSARIO would identify itself without an act being opened.	ROSARIO NICOTRA'S HOUSEHOLD IS IN NONE OF THE ELEVEN YEARS. The N section is ABSENT ALTOGETHER in 1838, 1840, 1841, 1842 and 1845 — the alphabet runs M straight into O or P. It is WRITTEN AND LEFT EMPTY in 1839, 1843 and 1844, which proves the clerks did write the heading when they had anything to put under it. Three years hold one entry each: 1846 «NICOTRA SALVADORE — Giarre — Nicotra D.r D. ALFIO / CONSOLI D.na ANTONINA — 5 Novembre»; 1847 «NICOLOSI Giuseppe — Nicolosi Angelo / Leotta Gaetana — 31 Gennaio»; and 1848 «110. NICOTRA SALVATORE — ivi — Nicotra D.r D. ALFIO / CONSOLI D.na ANTONINA — 2 Gennaro». THE ONLY NICOTRA HOUSEHOLD AT GIARRE IN ELEVEN YEARS IS A TITLED ONE — «Dottor Don» Alfio Nicotra and «Donna» Antonina Consoli — and they name a Salvatore twice, fourteen months apart, which is what a family does when the first child dies. ROSARIO NICOTRA IS A BRACCIANTE in his son's marriage act. Different household, different class. AND A STRUCTURAL FAULT FOUND IN THE PAPER, WHICH IS WHY THIS ROW IS «part» AND NOT «done». The Osservazioni column of the 1848 N entry reads, in the clerk's own hand, «IN FINE DELL'ALFABETO RIPORTATA ALTRA VOLTA LA LETTERA M» — at the end of the alphabet the letter M is entered a second time. GIARRE'S TAVOLE APPEND EXTRA LETTER-SECTIONS AFTER Z, for acts registered late. 1848 appends F and M; 1841 appends F and B; 1842 and 1843 append others still. SO «THE ALPHABET REACHED Z» IS NOT THE END OF THE INDEX, and a negative taken from the main run alone is incomplete. FIVE TAILS HAVE BEEN CHECKED AND ARE CLEAN of any second N — 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841 and 1848. SIX HAVE NOT: 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846 and 1847. Until those six tails are read this is eleven years swept and five years finished, and it is recorded that way. THE REACH, STATED: these are Giarre's own birth registers for eleven consecutive years, read at the only section that could hold the surname, in a table that names both parents. They answer for Giarre and for nothing else. AND ONE NAME KEEPS RECURRING: ALFIO. The only Nicotra household at MASCALI in 1839-1848 is Alfio Nicotra's; the only one at GIARRE is Dr Don Alfio Nicotra's; and an ALFIO NICOTRA fathered the 1875 Piedimonte Maria Nicotra who is NOT ours. Three Alfio Nicotras within eight kilometres. Nothing is claimed from it.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — the six remaining Giarre tails read: the 1838–1848 sweep is COMPLETE done	The Giarre sweep was filed «part» because the 1848 index says in its own Osservazioni column «IN FINE DELL'ALFABETO RIPORTATA ALTRA VOLTA LA LETTERA M» -- these Tavole APPEND EXTRA LETTER-SECTIONS AFTER Z for acts registered late, so reaching Z is not reaching the end of the index. Five tails had been checked; six had not. All six are now read: 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846 and 1847.	NOT ONE OF THE SIX CARRIES AN APPENDED N, AND THE SWEEP IS FINISHED. The appendices are real and they are various: 1842 appends T, P, B and F across images 223-224; 1843 appends R, M, C, G and T across 240-242; 1844 appends a single G on its last image; 1845 appends F and T; AND TWO YEARS APPEND NOTHING AT ALL -- 1846 ends at Z (Zappala Benedetta, Alfio, Giuseppe) with a blank facing page, and 1847 ends at Z with two further Zappala on the last leaf. SO THE APPENDIX IS A HABIT AND NOT A RULE, which is itself worth knowing: its absence in a volume is not evidence that the reading is complete, because 1846 and 1847 look identical to a volume whose appendix simply has not been reached. ALL ELEVEN YEARS ARE NOW VERIFIED IN BOTH THE MAIN RUN AND THE TAIL: 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848. ROSARIO NICOTRA'S HOUSEHOLD IS IN NONE OF THEM, and the only Nicotra at Giarre in eleven years remains «Nicotra D.r D. ALFIO» and «Consoli D.na Antonina», who name a Salvatore in November 1846 and again in January 1848. WHAT THIS LEAVES, STATED PLAINLY. Giovanni Nicotra's own marriage certificate says «NATO A GIARRE». Giarre's own registers, read end to end for eleven years, do not hold him. THREE READINGS SURVIVE AND NONE IS PROVED. (1) BOTH HIS DECLARED AGES ARE WRONG and he was born outside 1838-1848 -- he is «trentuno» in 1872 and «ventotto» in 1875, already six years apart, so a third error is not a stretch; the window either side is 1833-1837 and 1849-1853. (2) HE WAS BORN IN GIARRE'S TERRITORY BUT REGISTERED ELSEWHERE. RIPOSTO WAS PART OF GIARRE AND SEPARATED FROM IT IN THIS EXACT PERIOD; a man born in the lower town could call himself «nato a Giarre» and be entered in Riposto's register. THIS IS A HYPOTHESIS FROM GENERAL HISTORY, NOT FROM A DOCUMENT, and the way to test it is to list Riposto on Antenati and read its N sections. (3) «Nato a Giarre» is loose for one of the frazioni -- Macchia, Trepunti, Altarello, San Giovanni Montebello. THE REACH, STATED: this is Giarre's own birth register, every surviving year 1838-1848, read at the only section that could hold the surname, main run AND appendix, in a table that names both parents. It answers for the comune of Giarre and for nothing else.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — RIPOSTO attempted, and the control caught a throttle pretending to be a zero not-yet	The Giarre sweep finished clean across eleven years, so Giovanni Nicotra's «nato a Giarre» needs another register. RIPOSTO was part of Giarre and separated from it in this period, so a man from the lower town could say «nato a Giarre» and be entered at Riposto. First step: list Riposto with ?localita=Riposto&s_size=500.	NOTHING WAS LEARNED ABOUT RIPOSTO, AND THAT IS THE ENTRY. The query returned ZERO ARKS, NO FACETS and -- the tell -- NO «Nessun risultato trovato» EITHER. A genuine Antenati zero says so in prose; this said nothing at all. THE CONTROL SETTLED IT IN ONE FETCH: the same query shape run against MASCALI, which this archive listed three hours earlier at 498 volumes, came back IDENTICAL -- 520 bytes, title «403 Forbidden». THE SESSION IS RATE-LIMITED, and «Riposto returns nothing» would have been a fact about the throttle. This is the archive's own 520-byte signature, and it is the third distinct shape of false zero met today: the name index whose zero is prose and not a count; the listing that sits at the s_size ceiling and looks complete; and now a 403 that parses as an empty result set. ALL THREE RENDER AS «no results». RIPOSTO IS UNTESTED. Not negative, not a wall -- untested, pending the throttle clearing (this archive's own note gives it twenty minutes or more).
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — the false-zero test the Lerena archive asked for, run four ways done	The Lerena archive withdrew its own advice: it had told this archive that confirming the POSITIVE assertion of emptiness was the reliable discriminator, and then FamilySearch printed «Historical Record Search Results (0)» and «No Results Found» for every query for an afternoon because its session had expired -- stably, across two reads, after a ninety-second wait, with a control that had passed that morning. Its sharper rules: a control must be RECENT and ARITHMETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE ZERO; ask a SECOND search path on the same source; and when a null looks like a discovery, suspect it hardest. It asked whether the «Nessun risultato trovato» check holds for Antenati in the signed-out state, because that is the state in which the check has to work. FOUR PROBES, ONE MINUTE APART.	THE CHECK HOLDS FOR ANTENATI, AND THE REASON IS STRUCTURAL: THERE IS NO SESSION TO EXPIRE. (1) ARITHMETICALLY-IMPOSSIBLE CONTROL: localita=Catania returns «25476 risultati» and 500 arks. A provincial capital cannot be zero, and it was not. (2) TRUE-ZERO SIGNATURE, established deliberately rather than assumed: localita=Zzqqxxwv -- a locality that cannot exist -- returns HTTP 200, a 266 KB page, ZERO arks and «Nessun risultato trovato» in prose. That is what an Antenati nil looks like. (3) THE THROTTLE SIGNATURE, already known and confirmed again: 520 bytes, title «403 Forbidden», no arks, NO «Nessun risultato» -- which is exactly how the Riposto query failed earlier today. The two are distinguishable by SIZE ALONE, 266 KB against 520 bytes. (4) SIGNED-OUT: the same Riposto query run with credentials OMITTED returns byte-identical output to the signed-in one -- 421 risultati, 421 arks. ANTENATI'S REGISTER SEARCH IS PUBLIC AND STATELESS, so there is no cookie to lose and no signed-out state that differs. The Lerena failure mode cannot occur here. WHAT THIS ARCHIVE ADOPTS ANYWAY: the arithmetic control. Every nil re-tested today was controlled against «Arena at Scilla» or «Mascali», both of which merely OUGHT to return something. «Catania» cannot be zero, and that is a stronger guard for nothing extra.
21 Sep 2026	Antenati — RIPOSTO opened: 421 volumes, and the ordinary Nicotra live there part	Row 177. Giovanni Nicotra's 1872 publication certificate says «nato a GIARRE», and eleven Giarre birth years read end to end -- main runs and appendices -- do not hold him. RIPOSTO registers separately from Giarre from 1821, through the whole window, so a man of the lower town could say Giarre and be entered here. The listing was attempted this morning and returned a throttle; retried after it cleared, with an arithmetically-impossible control alongside.	421 VOLUMES, FACET TOTAL 421, COMPLETE IN ONE PAGE -- comfortably under the s_size ceiling, no paging needed. Banked whole in data/riposto-arks.tsv: 77 Nati, 71 Morti, 69 Matrimoni, 20 Matrimoni processetti, restaurazione 1821-1860 and italiano 1866-1893 WITH A GAP AT 1861-1865 between them. THREE YEARS READ AT THE N SECTION SO FAR. 1841 (his «trentuno in 1872» year): the alphabet runs M straight into P, NO N SECTION -- but the last leaf is TORN, its right page lost, so an appendix cannot be excluded and this is not a finished negative. 1842: M runs into P, NO N SECTION. 1847 (his «ventotto in 1875» year): THE N SECTION HOLDS TWO ENTRIES AND BOTH ARE NICOTRA -- «154. Nicotra Rosa, Riposto, NICOTRA GIUSEPPE / Autieri Angela, 17 Nov 1847» and «152. Nicotra Rosa, do, NICOTRA SALVADORE / Barbagallo Maria, 15 do». NEITHER FATHER IS A ROSARIO, so Giovanni is not among them. BUT THE FINDING IS THE HOUSEHOLDS THEMSELVES. Giarre's only Nicotra in ELEVEN YEARS is a «Dottor Don» with a «Donna» wife -- gentry, and not the family of a bracciante. RIPOSTO HOLDS TWO ORDINARY NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS IN A SINGLE YEAR. That is where people of Rosario Nicotra's condition carrying his surname actually lived, and it materially raises the odds that his household is in this register in a year not yet read. STILL TO READ: 1838, 1839, 1840, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1848 and outward, plus the torn tail of 1841. Containers banked for 1840, 1841, 1842, 1846, 1847, 1848. AND ONE NAME NOTED AND NOT CLAIMED: Riposto Nati 1842 entry 11 is «MAZZA FILIPPA», of Mazza Salvadore and Le Greci Grazia. A Mazza household at Riposto. This archive's Mazza are Piedimonte people and nothing connects them; it is recorded because the surname is the archive's own and a reader will ask.
22 Sep 2026	An audit of whether the SITE has kept up with the research — and one place it had not done	David asked whether the pages, trees and sources were keeping up with two days of fast research -- Mascali, Giarre and Riposto opened, four new people at generation six, Maria Nicotra's birth act found. This archive has twice published a page that had gone stale in the worst direction, so the question was answered by checking rather than by assurance: every page source swept for hard-coded counts and for phrases like «three towns»; the BUILT site searched for each new name; and the person page of the woman at the centre of it read end to end.	THE DATA-DRIVEN PAGES WERE ALREADY CURRENT AND THE HAND-WRITTEN ONES MOSTLY WERE. /searched/ carries all 233 rows and reads «2601 volumes across 7 comuni», with Riposto in the holdings table; /corrections/, /worklist/, /method/, /sources/ and /open-questions/ all current; /tree/ draws the new generation six through documented-parents.json. The new names appear across /lines/, /mazza/, /the-name-line/, /what-changed/ and /register/. AND ONE FALSE ALARM OF MY OWN, RECORDED BECAUSE IT IS THE SECOND TIME TODAY: I reported Maria Nicotra's birth date ABSENT from her own page. It is there in full. My grep was CASE-SENSITIVE and the correction is written in capitals. A tool that judges evidence is evidence, and mine was wrong before the page was. THE REAL GAP, AND IT HAD ONE ROOT: everything keyed on the EXPORT's people could not see the 114 documented additions -- the best-evidenced people in the archive, every one added from a register opened here. No person page, and no marker on the Atlas, which is why ZAMBRONE -- a comune with a read register run and a recorded gap in its deaths -- had no dot at all. Fixed today as row 176. TWO SMALLER THINGS FIXED. The Sicilian narrative page mentioned Mascali and Giarre in passing as neighbouring towns and said nothing of Riposto; it now carries a section saying plainly that THE SICILIAN QUARTER IS FOUR TOWNS, NOT ONE, with what each one holds and what is still missing from it. And a person page's «What is recorded» block is the TREE's account, with any correction further down -- a reader who skims stopped at the wrong town. It now says so and links to it. IT DOES NOT SAY WHICH LINE IS DISPUTED, because corrections.tsv carries prose and not a field name, and inferring which fact a paragraph is about is the kind of guess this archive refuses.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — Riposto births: seven years read, THREE Nicotra households, and none of them Rosario's part	Row 177. Giovanni Nicotra's certificate says «nato a GIARRE» and eleven Giarre years do not hold him; RIPOSTO registers separately from Giarre from 1821 and is the only other candidate. Its Tavola is alphabetical and NAMES BOTH PARENTS. Seven years now read at the N section, each checked into the next letter.	SEVEN YEARS, THREE NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS, AND ROSARIO IS IN NONE OF THEM. 1838: one entry, «170. NICOTRA MARIA», father FRANCESCO. 1840: the alphabet runs M straight into P, NO N SECTION. 1841: likewise no N section -- and its last leaf is TORN, so that year is not a finished negative. 1842: no N section. 1846: the N heading is WRITTEN AND LEFT EMPTY, and so is the O beneath it. 1847: TWO entries, both Nicotra -- «154. Nicotra Rosa, NICOTRA GIUSEPPE / Autieri Angela, 17 Nov» and «152. Nicotra Rosa, NICOTRA SALVADORE / Barbagallo Maria, 15 do». 1848: one entry, «166. NICOTRA LEONARDO, Riposto, Nicotra Giuseppe / Autieri Angela, 26 Dicembre» -- the same household as the year before. SO RIPOSTO HOLDS AT LEAST THREE ORDINARY NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS in the window: GIUSEPPE x ANGELA AUTIERI (1847 and 1848), SALVADORE x MARIA BARBAGALLO (1847), and FRANCESCO (1838). THAT IS THE POINT OF THE TOWN. Giarre's only Nicotra across ELEVEN years is a «Dottor Don» with a «Donna» wife; Mascali's only one across nine years is an Alfio. Riposto has three in seven, all of them the sort of family a bracciante marries into -- and still not the one this archive wants. STILL UNREAD: 1839, 1843, 1844 and 1845, and the torn tail of 1841. Their containers could not be fetched: the origin returned the 520-byte «403 Forbidden» signature four times across two attempts, which is the throttle and not a result. THE IMAGES ARE NEVER THROTTLED, only the HTML that carries a container id -- so this is a wait, not a wall. AND ONE ROUTE NOT YET TRIED THAT MAY NOT NEED THEM: Riposto's 1841 births exist in a SECOND VOLUME, «17517, suppl. 2» (an_ua73235), which may carry the leaf the first volume has lost.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — RIPOSTO Matrimoni 1835–1846 and the remaining Nati: twelve marriage years and the torn 1841 tail done	The Riposto birth sweep had left 1844 and 1845 unread and 1841 unfinished (torn last leaf). And the better instrument had never been opened: the restauration marriage Tavola names BOTH SPOUSES, ALL FOUR PARENTS and the comune each spouse came from, so Rosario Nicotra × Venera Murabito's own marriage would hand over generation seven in a single row.	ROSARIO IS IN NONE OF THE TWELVE MARRIAGE YEARS, AND THE BIRTH SWEEP IS NOW COMPLETE FOR ELEVEN YEARS. THE FIND IS RIPOSTO MATRIMONI 1844 ATTO 39: «NICOTRA SALVADORE», PATRIA GIARRE, son of NICOTRA ALFIO and PAPPALARDO ROSA, marrying Barbagallo Maria of Riposto, daughter of Rosario Barbagallo and Anna Campagna, in July 1844 (the day is not legible in the index). HE IS THE FATHER OF THE TWO RIPOSTO CHILDREN THE BIRTH SWEEP ALREADY HELD — Nicotra Alfio, atto 75, 9 May 1845, and Nicotra Rosa, 15 November 1847. HE IS NOT GIOVANNI'S FATHER. What he settles is the argument behind the whole search: «nato a Giarre» and «absent from Giarre's registers» stopped being a contradiction the moment a second man did both. THE BIRTH YEARS FINISHED: 1844 has the N heading WRITTEN AND LEFT BLANK, the facing page opening at O. 1845 has ONE N entry, Nicotra Alfio of Salvadore and Maria Barbagallo. AND 1841 IS CLOSED: the first volume's alphabet runs M into P with its last leaf torn and the right page lost, but THE SECOND 1841 VOLUME (17517 suppl. 2) CARRIES ITS OWN UNTORN TAVOLA, and there M runs into O with NO N HEADING AT ALL — and the O it holds, Oliveri Francesco atto 93, is exactly what the torn leaf lost. A DUPLICATE IS A COPY AND NOT A SECOND WITNESS, and that is said on the page too; what it gives is reach, not corroboration. THE REACH: Riposto's own registers, births 1838–1848 and marriages 1835–1846, at the only section that could hold the surname. They answer for Riposto and for nothing else.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Matrimoni 1835–1847, and the caution that cost the birth sweep its certainty done	Rosario Nicotra was «di Mascali» in the 1872 act, so if he married in his own comune his marriage is here. Eight years were openable. Each was read from the first section heading to «Fine» rather than at the M-to-next-letter junction.	NO NICOTRA IN ANY OF THE EIGHT YEARS. The only N entries are NICOLOSI Francesco × Mercurio Francesca (1840 atto 10) and NERI Leonardo × Borzì Maria (1847 atto 8), and the 1847 entry is the important one FOR A REASON THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NAME. ITS N SECTION SITS BEFORE THE M. This clerk's headings run C, then N, then M. 1841 and 1835 put V before S. THE SECTIONS AT MASCALI ARE NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, which means «the alphabet runs M straight into P, therefore there is no N» PROVES NOTHING HERE. The eight marriage years above were read whole and stand. THE NINE MASCALI BIRTH YEARS OF 1839–1848 WERE READ AT THE JUNCTION, BEFORE THIS WAS KNOWN, AND ARE NOW MARKED PROVISIONAL — on the Mascali page and on the work list, row 180. Nothing FOUND is withdrawn: Alfio Nicotra and Carmela Sudieri are still in 1840 and 1847. Only the NEGATIVES are weaker than they were written, and saying so is cheaper than discovering it later.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Nati 1820, the first year Sicily registered anything done	Riposto Matrimoni 1844 put Nicotra Salvadore's birth at Giarre about 1815–1824 — a decade earlier than the eleven Giarre years already read. Sicilian civil registration begins in 1820 and there is nothing before it, so 1820 is the floor. Its N section was read whole, at full width.	TWO UNTITLED NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS IN THE FIRST VOLUME. Atto 198, Nicotra Rosaria, of NICOTRA SIMONE and Marianna Dadone, 13 April. Atto 228, Nicotra Carmela, of NICOTRA ROSARIO and Rosa Providenza, 1 May. No Don, no Donna, written the way a labourer's name is written. SO «GIARRE'S ONLY NICOTRA IS A DOTTOR DON» WAS NEVER A FACT ABOUT GIARRE — IT WAS A FACT ABOUT ELEVEN YEARS OF IT, and this archive had let the eleven stand for the town. THE SECOND FATHER IS CALLED ROSARIO AND IT IS NOT HIM: Giovanni's father was a working bracciante in October 1872 and a man fathering a child in May 1820 would be past seventy-five by then. It is the generation a grandson is named after, which is naming custom, which this archive already files as weak evidence. THE NAME IS RECORDED AND THE JOIN IS NOT MADE. The test is Salvadore Nicotra's own birth act, which would say whether Alfio, Simone and Rosario are brothers. Also in the same section and not Nicotra: Nicolosi Pietro, Nota Alessandro, Nucifora Alfio.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Matrimoni 1835–1846 and Nati 1821–1826: blocked by the rate limiter, not by the register outstanding	The obvious next sweeps after Giarre 1820: the remaining early birth years, which would hold Salvadore Nicotra's own act, and the Giarre marriage Tavole, where Rosario Nicotra × Venera Murabito would be if he married in the town his son was born in.	NOT A NEGATIVE AND NOT A WALL — UNREAD. Twenty-one ark→container lookups were attempted and ONE returned before the throttle took the rest: every other one came back with this archive's known 520-byte, HTTP 403, «no Nessun risultato» signature. CORRECTED FROM YESTERDAY'S NOTE: a three-second pause between lookups does NOT keep you under the limiter, it only raises the batch from two or three to about twenty-eight. THE LIMITER IS CUMULATIVE. And a fifteen-minute wait after a lock was NOT enough — exactly one fetch got through before it closed again, so recovery is gradual rather than a clean reset. THE IMAGES THEMSELVES ARE NEVER THROTTLED; it is only the HTML page that carries a container id. So this is a queue to work through at about twenty-five containers a session, not a problem with Giarre.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Matrimoni 1844, and the Don Alfio who is «of S. Giovanni» in one register and «of Giarre» in another part	The Giarre marriage containers came through after the throttle cleared. 1844 was opened first because that is the year Nicotra Salvadore married at Riposto, and a brother marrying at home would sit beside him. The N section was read at full width.	TWO N ENTRIES AND THE IMPORTANT ONE IS NOT ROSARIO. Atto 54, 19 August 1844: NICOTRA D.r D. ALFIO, PATRIA GIARRE, son of Nicotra D. Giuseppe and CALTABIANO D. GIOACHINA, marrying Consoli D. Antonina — the couple whose Salvatore appears in the birth index in November 1846 and again in January 1848. Also atto 8, Noscia Mro Ignazio × Castorina Anna, which is not a Nicotra. THE FINDING IS A JOIN THIS ARCHIVE HAD REFUSED TO MAKE. Riposto Matrimoni 1838 atto 15 marries «Nicotra D. Alfio, son of FU D. GIUSEPPE and D. GIOACHINA CATTABIANO» to Ligresti D. Angela. THE SAME TWO PARENTS. It is ONE MAN, widowed and remarried across two comuni, and the household file said in September that whether he was Giarre's Don Alfio remarried «is not decided here». It is decided now, by the parents and not by the name. AND THE TWO REGISTERS GIVE HIM TWO BIRTHPLACES: Riposto wrote his patria «S. GIOVANNI», Giarre wrote «GIARRE». SAN GIOVANNI MONTEBELLO IS A FRAZIONE OF GIARRE, so both are true. THAT IS THE THIRD READING OF GIOVANNI NICOTRA'S PROBLEM, DOCUMENTED IN HIS OWN SURNAME: a man of this district can be «nato a Giarre» in one register and entered under a frazione's name in another. It does not find Giovanni; it makes his case possible without either of his declared ages being wrong. STILL TO READ: Giarre Matrimoni 1835-1843 and 1845-1846, containers banked. THE REACH: one year of one comune's marriage index, at the only section that could hold the surname.
22 Sep 2026	Antenati — the MASCALI riveli of 1616 opened: the oldest source in this archive, and it has a name index part	Forty-six Mascali volumes sit at PALERMO rather than Catania and are not civil registration at all: they are RIVELI DI BENI E DI ANIME, household returns made to the Sicilian parliament, and the earliest is 1616 — two centuries before any register this archive has read and the oldest source of any kind in it. The first volume was opened to find out what it is.	546 IMAGES, AND IT OPENS WITH AN ALPHABETICAL NAME INDEX, WITH THE LETTER TABS CUT INTO THE FORE-EDGE OF THE BOOK — B C D E F G I L M N P R S T V are visible in the photograph, AND THERE IS AN N. Each line gives a name and a folio number. THE CATCH, AND IT DECIDES HOW THIS IS SEARCHED: THE INDEX IS ORDERED BY FORENAME, NOT BY SURNAME. The A pages run Antonino lo Xuto, Antonino Puliseva, Antonio Barbagallo, Antonino Gagliano, Adamo Mangano, Alfonso di Lonardo, Aloisia lo Castro, Agata Grasso, Alfio Pinnisi, Alfio Musumeci, Antonino Musumeci and so on. So the N tab leads to Natale and Nicolo, NOT to Nicotra, and finding a surname means reading the index through rather than jumping to a letter. That is still perhaps twenty images instead of five hundred and forty-six, which is the difference between a task and a wall. THE SURNAMES ARE THE SAME ONES THE 1840s REGISTERS ARE FULL OF — Barbagallo, Musumeci, Finocchiaro, Grasso, Gagliano, Pinnisi, Strano, Arcidiacono, Puliseo — which says the population is continuous across two hundred years even though no line of descent is drawn. NO NICOTRA SEEN YET AND NONE LOOKED FOR PROPERLY: one opening of the index was read. THE REACH: this says what the instrument is and nothing about who is in it.
27 Sep 2026	Trove API v3 — the naturalisation gazettes, swept by surname now that a key exists part	David obtained a Trove API key on 27 September, valid to December 2026, which closes work-list row 153 and unblocks rows 7 and 79. Row 79 had failed on the TOOL and not the source: Trove's search page accepts a query, echoes it back, throws inside its own vendor bundle on a storage API the browser pane does not provide, and never paints a result list. The API needs no JavaScript. Seven surnames swept in the newspaper category, which includes the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.	SEVEN NATURALISATION ENTRIES, IN A SOURCE THAT HAD BEEN BLOCKED FOR EIGHT DAYS. PROSTAMO: Angela and Antonino Giacomo, gazetted 16 November 1961; Assunta, 3 November 1966. POLISTENA: Maria Luisa, 22 January 1959; Maria, 13 March 1969; Annunziato, 20 March 1969. MELLUSO: Francesco, 6 July 1961. ALL ARE CANDIDATES AND NONE IS A JOIN — data/trove-gazette.tsv says so row by row. A certificate-of-naturalisation notice in this gazette is a NAME IN AN ALPHABETICAL LIST and nothing else: no birth date, no address, no former nationality in these notices, so there is nothing in them to disambiguate two men of one name with. ANGELA PROSTAMO IS THE ONE NEW NAME; the rest match people the export already holds. AND ONE DISCREPANCY WORTH KEEPING: this archive already held «Maria Assunta's gazettal of 4 JULY 1966»; the notice found here is 3 NOVEMBER 1966 and prints ASSUNTA without the Maria. Two notices or two readings, and which has not been established. TWO THINGS THE API WILL NOT DO, both of which look like absence. (1) IT DOES NOT SERVE ARTICLE TEXT FOR GOVERNMENT GAZETTE NOTICES: `include=articletext` is accepted and silently ignored on /result AND on /newspaper/, and `snippet` comes back empty, which reads exactly like an article with no words in it. The OCR is on the public page at nla.gov.au/nla.news-article and tools/trove.py fetches it there. (2) THE DEFAULT SEARCH IS NOT EXACT: «Anile» returns 5,834,914 results — it is matching inside longer words, which is this estate's own «short token inside a long word» trap arriving in a new source, and that surname needs a phrase query before any of it means anything. THE OCR IS ALSO TWO COLUMNS READ ACROSS: entries print «Surname, Given Names» and flatten into «Prineas, Panagiotis Prostamo, Angela Prostamo, Antonmo Giacomo Przybylo, Jozef», so the given name after a surname belongs with THAT surname and «Antonmo» is Antonino. THE REACH: seven surnames, the newspaper and gazette category, certificate-of-naturalization notices only. Trove's newspapers largely stop at 1955 and the gazette runs to 1973, so this answers for the naturalisation window and for nothing later. THE 1942 INTERNMENTS (row 7) ARE NOT YET SWEPT.
27 Sep 2026	Trove API — the 1942 internments: two named internees, and the newspapers do not name them done	Work-list row 7, unblocked the same day as the API key. The NAA has already given two named internees in this family — ROSARIO MAZZA (MP1103/1 Q8110, born 20 February 1899) and MARIO CRUPI, both held at LOVEDAY in South Australia from 18 August 1942 to 30 December 1943. The row's hope was that «internees' names sometimes printed». Four phrase queries: each man by name, Loveday with internment, and Mazza against internee and Queensland.	THE NEWSPAPERS DO NOT NAME EITHER MAN AS AN INTERNEE, AND THAT IS THE FINDING. «Rosario Mazza» returns FOURTEEN articles, every one of them Queensland and none of them about internment: a wine overcharging fine at Brisbane in March 1947, a warning on dirty premises in September 1947, an eviction case in 1952, a Gordonvale police court in 1935. THEY MAY WELL BE HIS — he was released in December 1943 and a Brisbane tradesman in the late forties fits — but a name in a court report is not an identification and none of them is attached. «Mario Crupi» returns SIX, all in the right country: Innisfail, Cairns, Tully, Townsville, which is exactly where this archive already places the Crupi brothers. None mentions internment either. WHAT TROVE DOES HOLD IS THE CAMP, NOT THE ROLL. «Loveday» with internment returns 1,085 articles and they are good ones — «ITALIAN INTERNEES AT LOVEDAY: First Train Load Arrives», Murray Pioneer, 12 June 1941; preparations at the camp in May 1941; the Italians leaving in 1948. The South Australian papers covered the camp's existence closely and its inmates anonymously. SO THE ROW'S PREMISE IS TESTED AND FALSE FOR THESE TWO MEN. Internee names were not routinely printed, and the NAA file remains the only place either man is named. THE REACH: Trove's digitised newspapers, four phrase queries, both men by full name. Trove's newspaper run largely ends in 1954, which COVERS the 1942–43 internment window completely — this is not a coverage gap, it is an absence in the source.
27 Sep 2026	Trove — every Australian person this archive holds, searched by name, and where the source ends part	Asked whether Trove has anything left. Rather than guess: every Mazza this archive places in Australia searched by full name, plus the nine other surnames, plus the remaining naturalisation sweep. Phrase form `text:"..."`, established below.	SIXTEEN QUEENSLAND HITS ACROSS EVERY AUSTRALIAN MAZZA THIS ARCHIVE HOLDS, and most of the names return NOTHING: Michele, Ignazio, Venera Mazza, Alfonso Prostamo, Caterina Melluso, Giovanni Polistena are all zero. TWO ARE WORTH HAVING AND BOTH ARE BEHIND A WALL. (1) SEBASTIANO MAZZA, News-Mail (Bundaberg), 6 JULY 1962, headed «THREE NEW CITIZENS», snippet «Supported by friends and relatives, three former Italian citizens received certificates of...» — A NATURALISATION CEREMONY REPORT. (2) SEBASTIANO MAZZA again, same paper, 28 SEPTEMBER 1963, «Family Notices». Also CONCETTA MAZZA, a Queensland «Family Notices» of 17 FEBRUARY 1958. ALL THREE CARRY `status: currently unavailable`. Trove indexes these post-1955 Queensland papers and will not serve the text — the article pages 404 at both nla.gov.au/nla.news-article and trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/, though the search matched inside them. THIS IS A COPYRIGHT WALL, NOT AN ABSENCE, and the distinction matters: the words exist, are indexed, and are reachable another way. About 13 per cent of Nicotra hits carry the same flag. AND THE 1962 CEREMONY CONTRADICTS SOMETHING THIS ARCHIVE HOLDS. Row 105 reasons that Sebastiano Mazza was naturalised BEFORE 1959, because only British subjects could be enrolled and he is on the 1959 Queensland roll at Wacol. A naturalisation ceremony at BUNDABERG in July 1962 does not fit that, and Bundaberg is three hundred and fifty kilometres from Wacol. Either it is a different Sebastiano Mazza, or one of the two readings is wrong. NOT RESOLVED HERE and not attached to him. THE PHRASE FORM, because the obvious one does not work: `"Anile"` in quotes returns 5,834,914 — IDENTICAL to the unquoted total, so quoting does not bind. `text:"Anile"` returns 41,162, a 99.3 per cent cut. Controls run alongside: `Zzqqxxwv` returns 0 quoted and unquoted, so a zero here is real, and `Catania` returns 30,090. THE REACH: Trove's digitised newspapers and the Commonwealth Gazette, every Australian person in this archive by full name. It does NOT answer for anyone who never reached Australia, and it does not answer for the post-1955 Queensland press, which it indexes and withholds.
27 Sep 2026	Trove — the categories that are not newspapers, and the Queensland wills hiding in them part	Asked a second time whether Trove was finished, and the honest answer was that I had only searched ONE OF ITS CATEGORIES. Rows 7, 79 and 153 are all about newspapers and the Commonwealth Gazette; Trove also aggregates books, images, magazines, music, people, research and «diaries, letters and archives», the last of which carries ITEM-LEVEL RECORDS FROM STATE ARCHIVES. Eleven surnames across eight categories, with the Zzqqxxwv control run in every one of them.	TROVE IS NOT FINISHED, AND THE THING IT WAS HIDING IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING IN THE NEWSPAPERS. The `diary` category surfaces QUEENSLAND STATE ARCHIVES item records, and four of them are NICOTRA WILLS: SALVATORE PHILIP (1955, ITM938108), LEONARDA (1962), VINCENZO (1965), FILIPPO (1966) — all «Part of series Supreme Court (Northern) Ecclesiastical Files (Wills) (S6220)», all held at QSA, all marked OPEN ACCESS. A will file names the deceased, the date of death, the address, the occupation, the executors and the beneficiaries, which is usually the whole household. ALL FOUR ARE TOWNSVILLE DISTRICT, AND NORTH QUEENSLAND HAS ALREADY COME UP TWICE IN THIS SWEEP: the only two Nicotra family notices in the newspapers are the Evening Advocate (INNISFAIL), 1 May and 17 September 1953, and the Lands Department holds three Nicotra land files for Innisfail and Cardwell Shire. THERE IS A NORTH QUEENSLAND NICOTRA CLUSTER and this archive has never looked at it. WHETHER IT IS MARIA NICOTRA'S FAMILY IS COMPLETELY UNKNOWN — she died at Brisbane in 1963, four hundred kilometres south — and nothing here is attached to anybody. ALSO FOUND: «Naturalisation - Central District - MAZZA, James, 1898» at Rockhampton, half a century before this family reached Australia and recorded so nobody chases it twice. And court files under CASSANITI and MURABITO — both surnames off the Nicotra line — but dated 2014, 2015 and 2018, which is modern and touches the living, so they are named here and not pursued. AND A CORRECTION TO THE SAME DAY'S WORK. This archive was told a few hours earlier that Trove could be closed. THAT ADVICE WAS WRONG, and wrong in a way worth writing down: the sweep was thorough inside one category and never asked what the other seven held. A source is not exhausted because the part of it you know about is. THE REACH: eight Trove categories, eleven surnames, controls in each. It does not reach anyone who never came to Australia.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Giarre Nati 1827 and 1828, the annual Tavole read whole done	Giarre (Catania), Stato civile della restaurazione. 1827: ark an_ua68985, segnatura 15927, container 5xe4lba, 175 images, Tavola at folios 170-173. 1828: ark an_ua68986, segnatura 15928, container wRGJ3ja, 237 images, Tavola at folios 229-230. Archivio di Stato di Catania. Both Tavole read from the first heading to the last rather than by junction, because a junction negative is unsafe where section order cannot be assumed.	A NULL ON NICOTRA IN BOTH. The N heading is ruled and left blank in each year, with O blank beneath it, then P opens at Pafumi act 34 (1827) and Pennisi act 12 (1828). The first MURABITO households this archive has found anywhere turned up instead — three of them across the two years, one of which names a daughter Venera in 1827 and another daughter in 1828. Murabito is a common Giarre surname, so «Venera Murabito of Giarre» is ordinary rather than remarkable. The 1827 Venera is NOT Rosario Nicotra's wife: born 1827 she would have been fourteen when Giovanni was born about 1841.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Mascali, whether a 1844 volume exists in any series done	Mascali (Catania), the whole holding: 498 results, 498 distinct arks, facet totals agreeing, so a complete listing and not a sample at the page-size ceiling. Every series checked for 1844 — Nati, Morti, Matrimoni, Nati esposti, Matrimoni processetti, the memorandum notificazioni, and Diversi.	MASCALI HAS NO 1844 IN ANY RESTAURAZIONE SERIES. The run goes 1843 then 1845 throughout, and both counters step by exactly one across the gap — ark an_ua70313 to an_ua70314, Catania segnatura 16777 to 16778 — where every other year steps by one per year. The year was never deposited rather than dropped from a listing. GIARRE HAS 1844, so this is Mascali's hole and not a regional one. Any Mascali negative spanning 1844 is complete without it, and no search should be planned for it.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — which endpoints the rate limiter actually governs done	Tested across a working day while the site was refusing traffic: the ark landing pages (antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/...), the search listing (/ricerca/), the IIIF image service (iiif-antenati.cultura.gov.it) and the container manifest (dam-antenati.cultura.gov.it/antenati/containers//manifest).	THE THROTTLE IS ON THE HTML, NOT ON THE IMAGES. Ark pages and /ricerca/ returned a blanket 403 all day, including to an ordinary browser, while the IIIF image service and the container manifest served every request without complaint. So a volume whose CONTAINER is already recorded can be read in full during a throttle; only the ark-to-container lookup is blocked. That is the argument for banking container ids in the ark tables as they are found. Also: asking IIIF for a width greater than the image's own returns a 403 whose BODY IS AN HTML ERROR PAGE, which will be saved as a .jpg by anything that does not check.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Mascali Morti 1882, and the early M of 1881 done	Mascali (Catania), Stato civile italiano. 1882: ark an_ua81729, segnatura 8853, container 0JbrlJG, 53 images, Indice Annuale at folio 40. 1881: ark an_ua81728, segnatura 8852, container LPR9gW8, 63 images, index at folio 38. Both indexes read whole, M and N, across the paired exposures described in the row below.	BOTH NULL ON NICOTRA'S ROSARIO AND ON MURABITO. 1882 holds three N entries — Neri Maria 75, Nucifora Filippo 82, Nicolosi Enna 106 — and no Murabito in M. 1881 holds five — Nicotra Nunziato 2, Nicotra Salvatore 14, Neri Salvatore 16, Neri Maria 37, Nucifora Maria 61 — and its EARLY M, previously unread behind the card, holds no Murabito either. That matters because an Italian death index files a married woman under her maiden surname, so the M section is where a Venera Murabito would appear and half of 1881's had never been looked at. 1882 had been recorded as unreadable and was not.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — the DUPLICATA card is moved between exposures, so a covered page is not a lost one done	Observed in two Mascali death volumes at the Archivio di Stato di Catania, containers 0JbrlJG (1882, images 51 and 52) and LPR9gW8 (1881, images 61 and 62). Method note, not a family finding.	WHERE A BLACK «DUPLICATA» CARD COVERS HALF AN OPENING, LOOK AT THE ADJACENT IMAGE. The opening is photographed TWICE and the card is moved between exposures — once resting on the left-hand page, once on the right — so the two images together give every column. The card identifies the archive's duplicate copy; it is not damage and it is not a redaction. A session that reads one image and stops will record a year as unreadable when it is fully legible, and that is exactly what happened here: Mascali Morti 1882 sat as «hidden behind the cover sheet» for a day, and 1881 had half its M section written off the same way. Neither volume has a second copy to fall back on, so the mistake would have been permanent. Separately: the volume's back cover may carry the archive's own condition labels — PAG. ONDULATE, PAG. MACCHIATA, PAG. TRASPARENTE, TUTTO IL VOLUME, IMPOSSIBILE FARE DI MEGLIO — which describe the paper and say nothing about whether the index can be read.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Mascali Nati 1873, 1874, 1876 and 1877, the annual indexes and two acts done	Mascali (Catania), Stato civile italiano, Archivio di Stato di Catania. 1873 ark an_ua81752 segn 8759 container wE72Q9W (70 images, index folio 56, act 145 at image 60); 1874 an_ua81753 / 8760 / w68j9AQ (70, folio 63); 1876 an_ua81755 / 8762 / 5gKnx4N (85, folio 70); 1877 an_ua81756 / 8763 / LpAxl61 (78, folio 66, act 8 at image 6). N section read whole in each year; two acts fetched in full. 1873 and 1874 carry a PATERNITÀ column in the index and 1876 and 1877 do not, which decides whether a father can be had without fetching the act.	THE TARGET HOUSEHOLD FOUND, AND TWO MORE BESIDE IT. Mascali Nati 1873 atto 145 is the birth of VENERA NICOTRA to GIOVANNI NICOTRA DI ROSARIO, lavorante, and VENERA CASSANITI FU GAETANO, at contrada Nocille — «di» Rosario and not «fu», in an act that writes «fu» for the wife's dead father four lines below, so the father was alive in December 1873. 1874, 1876 and 1877 hold no further child of that couple, which fits the two births already known. Three other Nicotra households at Mascali: GAETANO x CARMELA CAVALLARO of Nunziata (daughters 1874 and 1877, the second read in full), GIUSEPPE FU ANGELO (a witness Giovanni chose himself), and an ALFIO fathering a child in 1873. Act 4 of 1877, Nicotra Mariano, remains unread. A namesake worth knowing: TWO Maria Nicotras born at Mascali twenty months apart, 1874 to Gaetano and 1875 to Giovanni.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Giarre Nati 1827-1837, closing the 1820-1848 run done	Giarre (Catania), Stato civile della restaurazione, Archivio di Stato di Catania. Eleven annual Tavole, each read from the first heading to the last rather than by junction — 1834's alphabet runs P, Q, V, S, so junction negatives are unsafe in these volumes. Arks an_ua68985 to an_ua68995, containers 5xe4lba, wRGJ3ja, 5vxY4ly, LpA8n1Z, wQ8J9vY, 5GE26Nx, 5vxY4Kl, Lapd1WA, 5dZj6aK, LqJro1B, wbr2VZX. With the years already held this COMPLETES Giarre births 1820-1848: twenty-nine consecutive years, no gaps.	A NULL ON NICOTRA ACROSS THE WHOLE DECADE, and the completed run turns it into a finding. Giarre's ordinary Nicotra appear in 1820 and 1821 — four households, two of them headed by a ROSARIO — and then disappear from the birth registers for twenty-four years, after which the only Nicotra left is a titled «Dottor Don» line in 1846 and 1848. The N section is ruled and blank in six of the eleven years and ABSENT ALTOGETHER in four; the one N entry in 1836 is a Nicciò. GIOVANNI NICOTRA, whose 1872 marriage act says «nato a GIARRE» and whose age puts his birth between about 1841 and about 1847, is in none of it, and neither is a sibling. Either the birth went unregistered, or «Giarre» meant a frazione or the district rather than the comune, or he was born elsewhere. SIX MURABITO HOUSEHOLDS were recorded in passing, three of them against the one name Giuseppe Murabito with three different wives, and TWO daughters called Venera — so Venera Murabito is an ordinary Giarre name and cannot be pinned on the name alone.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Mascali Morti 1873-1893 swept whole, and Rosario Nicotra found done	Mascali (Catania), Stato civile italiano, Archivio di Stato di Catania. All 21 annual death indexes 1873-1893, the whole digitised range. Every index read for MURABITO in the M section as well as NICOTRA in the N, because an Italian death index files a married woman under her MAIDEN surname. Most volumes needed BOTH paired exposures: the archive's black DUPLICATA card covers one page of an opening in one image and the other page in the next.	ROSARIO NICOTRA FOUND, atto 35 of 1890, read in the original: «è morto NICOTRA ROSARIO, di anni NOVANTA CIRCA, CONTADINO, residente in Mascali, NATO IN GIARRE, da fu SIMONE, e da fu MUSUMECI MARIANNA, MARITO DI MURABITO VENERA», died 4 April 1890 at contrada Montargi. Born about 1800 AT GIARRE — which is very likely why his son's 1872 marriage act says «nato a Giarre» — with a trade, a death, a wife named beside him and TWO PARENTS the archive did not have, a seventh generation. «MARITO», not «vedovo», so VENERA MURABITO OUTLIVED HIM; she appears in none of these 21 indexes, and 1893 is where Antenati's Mascali stops, so her death is beyond the digitised range and needs the comune or a certificate. Also found: the first MURABITO at Mascali rather than Giarre — BARTOLO, bracciale, born Mascali, son of a Paolo, died 1885 atto 4, declared 106; and SALVATORE Murabito 1886 atto 78. Four other Nicotra households, and two 1883 Nicotra infant deaths proved by their acts to belong to other families.
9 Oct 2026	Antenati — Mascali Matrimoni 1835-1847 and Riposto Matrimoni 1830-1846, swept whole done	Mascali and Riposto (Catania), Archivio di Stato di Catania. Mascali's thirteen marriage Tavole 1835-1847 (1844 was never deposited) and Riposto's seventeen 1830-1846. MASCALI'S SECTIONS ARE NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER — 1847 runs C, N, M; 1841 and 1835 put V before S — so every volume was read heading by heading and no junction negative was taken.	NO NICOTRA GROOM AT MASCALI IN THIRTEEN YEARS; four of its Tavole have no N section at all. Riposto 1830 holds the ONLY Nicotra groom found in any marriage index across three towns and 118 read years: atto 12, «D. FRANCESCO NICOTRA di anni venticinque, NATO IN GIARRE, CALZOLAJO, figlio di D. GIUSEPPE e di ROSARIA MISANO di anni sessantaquattro», marrying Maria Sapienza of Riposto. The «D.» is Don and the trade is artisan, so this is the TITLED Giarre Nicotra and not the bracciante line — but Rosaria Misano born about 1766 makes them the earliest Nicotra generation reached anywhere. NOTE FOR ANYONE USING THESE INDEXES: they list by the GROOM'S surname only, so a bride of the name will not appear under her own letter.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Matrimoni 1820–1829, the decade Rosario would have married in done	Mascali (Catania), Archivio di Stato di Catania. All ten marriage Tavole of 1820–1829, each read from its first section heading to its last rather than at the M-to-next-letter junction. Containers w992969, wlG7G22, 57PKPmX, wXrJr7v, w68l8zb, wRGbGWQ, 0A4p4mg, 0Jb9beG, 0Jb9brG, 0ZJeJRa. Every year checked against the register's own closing line, which states the act count in words, so each reading is a whole table and not a half: venticinque, undici, sedici, ventiquattro, trentuno, trentuno, quindici, and the rest.	NO NICOTRA GROOM IN ANY OF THE TEN YEARS. Seven have no N heading ruled at all; three carry a single N entry and none is a Nicotra — NICIFORA Leonardo (1824 atto 22), NICIFORA Mariano (1825 atto 17), NICOLOSI Salvadore (1827 atto 10). 1827 IS THE ONE TO REMEMBER: ITS N SECTION SITS AFTER THE P. The headings run C, F, G, M, P, N, R, T, V, so a reader who stopped at the M–P junction would have called the year empty and been wrong. That is the third independent proof that MASCALI'S SECTIONS ARE NOT ALPHABETICAL — 1847 runs C, N, M and 1841 and 1835 put V before S. One find attached to nobody: the 1825 groom's mother is written NICOTRA MARIA, a Nicotra woman born by about 1785, a generation above Rosario; a shared surname in one town is not a link. This closes Mascali as the place Rosario Nicotra married. His 1890 death act says NATO IN GIARRE, and Giarre is where the marriage must now be looked for.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Matrimoni 1820–1829, the decade in Rosario's birthplace done	Giarre (Catania), Archivio di Stato di Catania. All ten marriage Tavole 1820–1829, each read from its first ruled letter to its last. Containers LqJrKnB, 5VKXP9J, wrdrmWX, 5VKXPmV, LydYKx1, wbr2Ron, wrdrmey, Lme8RKK, LoYEKVR, LeGQRZD. Opened because Rosario Nicotra's 1890 Mascali death act says NATO IN GIARRE and Mascali's own marriage decade had just come back empty.	TWO NICOTRA GROOMS IN 1820 — the first found in any Giarre marriage index. ATTO 30, 1 May: NICOTRA SALVADORE x Strano Giuseppa, son of NICOTRA CIRINO and PELLINI MARIA. ATTO 80, 31 July: NICOTRA GIUSEPPE x Cattabiano Rosa, son of NICOTRA MASTRO SEBASTIANO and TORNABENE CARMELA. Neither is Rosario, who was about twenty that year; these are two Nicotra HOUSEHOLDS of Giarre standing in the same generation as his father Simone. The acts themselves are in the same volume and are not yet read. THE OTHER NINE YEARS GIVE NOTHING: 1822 and 1824 hold a single N entry each and both are NICOLOSI, 1821 has no N heading at all, and 1823, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828 and 1829 have the heading RULED AND BLANK. FOR ANYONE USING THESE INDEXES: Giarre's clerks rule every letter whether or not it carries an entry — 1823 rules A·B, D·E, N, O and Q all empty — so a blank heading at Giarre is a positive statement of absence. That is the opposite of Mascali, whose clerks file out of order and whose silences prove nothing. CAVEAT ON 1820: the Tavola's first leaf (entries 1–56, letters A–L) was never photographed; the index is strictly alphabetical and the N section is bounded by M before and O after, but the year is not a whole reading and is not recorded as one.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — RIPOSTO Matrimoni 1821–1829, the decade completed done	Riposto (Catania), Archivio di Stato di Catania. All nine marriage Tavole 1821–1829 — Riposto's civil registers begin in 1821 — each read from its first ruled letter to «Fine». Containers w68qppe, w99mlP6, 5GEmr1N, wrd7kap, wE71q3d, LqJm8qP, wlG6nqY, 5YGADzP, wbrBz3Z. Every year checked against the register's own closing line, which states the act count in words.	THE N HEADING IS RULED IN ALL NINE YEARS AND CARRIES NOTHING IN ANY OF THEM. No Nicotra, and no N entry of any surname, in the whole decade. THESE ARE THE STRONGEST NEGATIVES IN THE SWEEP, because Riposto's clerks rule every letter of the alphabet whether or not anything falls under it — 1828 rules twenty letters and only seven carry an entry — so a blank N is written down rather than omitted. Two years prove their own heading placement: in 1827 and 1829 the letter directly beneath the blank N is O, carrying OLIVERI Teodoro and OLIVIERI Mariano, so the blank line is the N section and not a mis-set heading. 1821 is flagged «Faded Document» by the archive and its ruled letters were read as a full-resolution IIIF crop rather than called from the page view. WITH THIS THE 1820s ARE CLOSED IN ALL THREE TOWNS — twenty-nine Tavole across Mascali, Giarre and Riposto — and the decade yielded exactly one thing: the two Nicotra grooms of Giarre 1820.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Matrimoni 1820, atti 30 and 80 read in the original done	Giarre (Catania), container LqJrKnB, images 61 and 163. The two Nicotra marriages the 1820 Tavola had just turned up, pulled from the Tavola's act numbers to the acts themselves so the index entries became documents.	BOTH ACTS READ IN FULL, and they give the generation this archive had never reached at Giarre. ATTO 30 (21 April 1820): SALVADORE NICOTRA, DI ANNI TRENTASEI COMPIUTI, NATO IN QUESTO COMUNE, CONTADINO, figlio di FU CIRINO, DI ANNI OTTANTA, UN TEMPO CONTADINO, e di FU MARIA — marrying Giuseppa Strano of the S. Leonardello quarter, daughter of fu Giuseppe and Rosa Vitale; church marriage 22 April, documents foglio 271. ATTO 80 (24 July 1820): GIUSEPPE NICOTRA, DI ANNI VENTITRE COMPIUTI, NATO IN QUESTO COMUNE, CONTADINO, figlio di MAESTRO SEBASTIANO, DI ANNI CINQUANTA, FALEGNAME, e di CARMELA TORNABENE, DI ANNI CINQUANTA — marrying Rosa Cattabiano of the S. Alfio quarter, daughter of fu Carmelo and Maria Musumeci; church marriage 31 July, documents foglio 564. SO CIRINO NICOTRA WAS BORN ABOUT 1740 AND WAS DEAD BY APRIL 1820, AND MASTRO SEBASTIANO NICOTRA WAS BORN ABOUT 1770 AND WAS ALIVE IN JULY 1820. Rosario Nicotra was born about 1800 at Giarre to SIMONE and Marianna Musumeci; Sebastiano stands in Simone's own generation and Cirino one above it, and Giuseppe is Rosario's near-exact contemporary in the same town and trade. NOTHING IS ATTACHED — Giuseppe is not Rosario's brother, their parents being different couples, and whether Simone was Cirino's son or Sebastiano's brother is not established by these acts. Filed as question 19. THE NEXT MOVE IS GIARRE NATI 1796-1800, which would give Giuseppe's and Rosario's baptisms with their fathers named and settle it in one pair of acts.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Nati 1820 atto 198, the Simone Nicotra act read in the original done	Giarre (Catania), container 03PBQXV, canvas 201. The 1820 birth index had recorded «atto 198 Nicotra Rosaria, of NICOTRA SIMONE and Marianna Dadone» since the Giarre birth sweep. SIMONE is the name of Rosario Nicotra's father and the deepest name this archive holds, so the act itself was pulled to see what it gives.	«È COMPARSO SIMONE NICOTRA, DI ANNI QUARANTAQUATTRO, DI PROFESSIONE CONTADINO, DOMICILIATO NEL QUARTIERE S. ALFIO DI QUESTO COMUNE ... LA STESSA È NATA DA MARIANNA DAIDONE SUA LEGITTIMA MOGLIE, DI ANNI QUARANTA», 15 April 1820, declaring a daughter ROSARIA born on the 13th, baptised on the 24th; documents at foglio 263. SO THIS SIMONE NICOTRA WAS BORN ABOUT 1776, HIS WIFE ABOUT 1780, AND THEY LIVED IN THE S. ALFIO QUARTER OF GIARRE. THE CONFLICT, STATED PLAINLY: Rosario Nicotra was born about 1800 AT GIARRE and his 1890 Mascali death act names his parents as fu SIMONE and fu MUSUMECI MARIANNA. This Simone is a contadino at Giarre of exactly the right age to have fathered Rosario at twenty-four, and the wife's FORENAME MATCHES EXACTLY — but her surname is written DAIDONE here and MUSUMECI there. Both were read at full resolution off IIIF crops and neither is a strained reading. He is the strongest candidate this archive has ever had for Rosario's father and HE IS NOT ATTACHED TO HIM; a forename and a town are not a link. Filed as question 19. A CORRECTION RECORDED WITH IT: the previous note said the next move was Giarre Nati 1796-1800. NO SUCH REGISTER EXISTS — every Giarre civil series begins in 1820, the first year Sicily registered, and earlier births are parish records not held by Antenati. WHAT WOULD ACTUALLY SETTLE IT is Simone's own death act in GIARRE MORTI (he was 44 in 1820, so he died between 1820 and about 1860), which would name his parents and his spouse; or Marianna's, which an Italian death index files under her MAIDEN name, so D and M must both be checked. Giarre's Morti run to about 147 volumes and none is banked.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Morti 1820–1860, swept whole for SIMONE NICOTRA (39 of 41 years) done	Giarre (Catania), Archivio di Stato di Catania. All forty-one Giarre death years from 1820 to 1860 were banked in one window on 11 October 2026 — forty-one ark-to-container lookups without a 403, the longest run this archive has had. Twenty-three are read: 1820–1842. The target is SIMONE NICOTRA, «di anni quarantaquattro, contadino» in Giarre Nati 1820 atto 198, so born about 1776; and his wife MARIANNA, written DAIDONE there and MUSUMECI in Rosario Nicotra's 1890 death act. A death act names the deceased's PARENTS and the SPOUSE, which is both halves of that question at once.	SIMONE NICOTRA IS IN NO GIARRE DEATH TAVOLA FROM 1820 TO 1860. Forty of the forty-one years are read (1854 excepted, below). He was forty-four in April 1820 by his daughter's birth act, so he would have been eighty-four by 1860: HE DIED AFTER 1860, OR HE DIED SOMEWHERE ELSE. Neither has a Marianna Musumeci appeared in any M section, which is read in the same view as N at no extra cost. WHAT THE SWEEP FOUND INSTEAD IS HOW CROWDED THE SURNAME WAS — NINE NICOTRA HOUSEHOLDS OF GIARRE, each a couple the index itself names: SIMONE x DAIDONE MARIANNA (1820, burying a daughter five weeks after the same couple registered another in the birth register — confirmed twice, independently); SALVADORE x SPINA ROSA (1820); MARIANO x SPINA SANTA (1821); FRANCESCO x FRESTA ANNA (1827); ALFIO x PAPPALARDO ROSA (1831, 1836) and then ALFIO HIMSELF in 1842, «BRACCIALE, figlio di NICOTRA GIUSEPPE e PENNISI LEONARDA», which adds GIUSEPPE x LEONARDA PENNISI above him; D.r D. ALFIO x CONSOLI D. ANTONINA (1847); D. FERDINANDO x RUBBIERO CONCETTA (1856); and GIUSEPPE x COCO CARMELA (1859). Nine Nicotra fathers in one small town is exactly the situation in which a shared surname proves nothing, and NONE OF THEM IS ATTACHED TO ANYBODY. TWO FINDINGS WORTH CARRYING OUT OF THIS. (1) 1842 PROVES THE INSTRUMENT: a death act here really does write down the deceased's parents, which is why this was the right book. (2) 1847 CLOSED A LOOP THE ARCHIVE ALREADY HAD OPEN: «NICOTRA SALVATORE, figlio di NICOTRA D.r D. ALFIO e CONSOL D. ANTONINA», died 3 August 1847 — which is why that couple, who registered a son Salvadore in November 1846, registered a SECOND Salvatore in January 1848. The first died at nine months. METHOD, FOR WHOEVER COMES NEXT. 1850 IS NOT READ, AND AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS ROW SAID IT WAS. Segnatura 16098, the Giarre deposit (container w99kPgr, label «Giarre > 1850»), is scanned short — it ends at act 167 against its own closing line of 176, with no index at all. This row then claimed the Tavola was recovered from «the duplicate», segnatura 16480, container 57Vre6X. IT IS NOT A DUPLICATE. ITS MANIFEST LABEL READS «MACCHIA > 1850». MACCHIA IS A DIFFERENT COMUNE, and the Tavola read there — with its hamlet and trade columns — BELONGS TO MACCHIA'S DEAD, NOT GIARRE'S. The claim that «the two-deposit rule has actually paid here» was false: there is no second Giarre deposit for 1850. SO THIS SWEEP IS THIRTY-NINE OF FORTY-ONE YEARS, NOT FORTY — 1850 AND 1854 ARE BOTH UNREAD. Whatever names were taken from that Tavola are Macchia people and must not be read as Giarre ones. 1854 IS NOT READ AND IS NOT A NEGATIVE: two years' indexes are interleaved in its container's tail — image 123's left page is a clean 1854 M section and its FACING page carries an N heading with one line dated 1856, «NICOTRA SEBASTIANO, ACI REALE, BRACCIALE» — and the 1854 N section was never reached. That stray man is unplaced too, and I checked rather than assumed: Giarre's own 1855 and 1856 Tavole do not contain him. THE D SECTION, FOR DAIDONE, HAS NOT BEEN READ IN ANY YEAR — an Italian death index files a married woman under her MAIDEN name, so Marianna could be waiting under D in a year counted here as read. That gap is recorded rather than assumed.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Morti 1820–1860, the D section swept for DAIDONE (39 of 39 years) done	Giarre (Catania). A SECOND PASS OVER A SWEEP ALREADY CALLED DONE, to close a gap the first pass created and recorded. The Nicotra sweep read the M and N sections, which sit side by side, so MUSUMECI came free; the D section sits pages earlier and was skipped in every one of the forty years. An Italian death index files a married woman under her MAIDEN name, so MARIANNA DAIDONE — wife of Simone Nicotra by Giarre Nati 1820 atto 198, born about 1780 — could have been sitting under D in a year already counted as read. All thirty-nine readable years were reopened at their D section.	THERE IS NO DAIDONE IN ANY GIARRE DEATH TAVOLA FROM 1820 TO 1860. What is there instead is D'Urso, D'Angelo, D'Agata, Di Bella, Di Stefano, Di Mauro, D'Aquino, Denaro, Di Dio and a great many foundlings given invented surnames. EIGHT YEARS RULE D BLANK ALTOGETHER — 1823, 1825, 1827, 1828, 1830, 1832, 1841 and 1847 — and 1841 is the cleanest of all, because that volume gives every letter its own page and D is an empty sheet carrying nothing but its heading. 1845 and 1860 hold a DAMIANI, which is the nearest thing in forty years and is not the same name. SO THE WHOLE RESULT, ACROSS THREE SURNAMES: neither SIMONE NICOTRA nor his wife MARIANNA — looked for under NICOTRA, under DAIDONE and under MUSUMECI — died at Giarre between 1820 and 1860. He was forty-four in April 1820 and would have been eighty-four at the end of the span. THEY DIED AFTER 1860, OR THEY DIED SOMEWHERE ELSE. Rosario was at Mascali by 1841, where his son Giovanni was born, so MASCALI'S OWN DEATH REGISTERS BEFORE 1873 are the obvious next place; this archive has read Mascali Morti only from 1873. ONE YEAR IS STILL UNREAD IN EVERY LETTER: 1854, whose container interleaves two years' indexes in its tail.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Morti 1820–1872, swept for NICOTRA and DAIDONE (51 of 52 years) done	Mascali (Catania). Forty years of GIARRE deaths hold neither Simone Nicotra nor his wife Marianna, under Nicotra, Daidone or Musumeci. Rosario was at Mascali from 1841 and died there in 1890, so MASCALI BEFORE 1873 was the obvious next place; this archive had read Mascali Morti only from 1873. Every pre-1873 Morti container was resolved from its ark and its Tavola read. THE MASCALI RULE APPLIES THROUGHOUT: these sections are NOT reliably alphabetical, so a missing letter proves nothing unless the whole Tavola is read heading to heading, and that is how 1820-1865 were read. FROM 1866 THE FORMAT CHANGES COMPLETELY — the post-unification volumes carry an «Indice annuale» ORDERED BY FORENAME, so there is no D page or N page at all and the only way to search is to read the SURNAME COLUMN of every entry under every letter. That change silently breaks a surname-based search and is the single most important methodological finding here.	FIFTY-ONE OF FIFTY-TWO YEARS READ. 1844 HAS NO MORTI VOLUME IN ANY SERIES. ONE YEAR IS NOT ESTABLISHED: 1831 is faded past reading — Antenati stamps the plates «Faded Document», the ink is gone in places, and the run from M into P where an N section would sit holds one entry (no. 74) whose surname cannot be read. NO DUPLICATE DEPOSIT EXISTS for Mascali 1831-1833, so the two-deposit rule that rescued Giarre Morti 1850 has nothing to offer; 1831 stays open rather than being counted as a negative. 1869's index is partly under a black archive mask and is NOT claimed exhaustive. NEITHER SIMONE NICOTRA NOR MARIANNA DAIDONE IS AMONG THE DEAD OF MASCALI IN THESE YEARS. But the surnames are emphatically here, which Giarre could not show: SIX NICOTRA DECEDENTS — 1848 atto 118 SALVADORE of Giarre, son of Alfio x Pappalardo Rosa; 1851 atto 108 ANGELA, daughter of Alfio x Previtera Santa; 1862 atto 48 CARMELA, daughter of Giovanni; 1868 atto 28 CARMELA; 1869 atto 63 ALFIO; 1872 atto 80 MARIA or MADDALENA, daughter of Gaetano. AND THE FIRST DAIDONE DECEDENT FOUND ANYWHERE IN THIS PROJECT: 1841 atto 6, ANGELA DAJDONE, aged fifty, «NATA IN MASCALI», daughter of the late Giuseppe, against forty years of Giarre that hold not one Daidone of any kind. EVERY NICOTRA WAS VERIFIED BY NATIVE-SCALE CROP, because NICOLOSI and NUCIFORA both appear in these same Tavole and are the known look-alike trap; 1862 and 1868 each spell NICOLOSI within two lines of the NICOTRA, which is as good a control as the record can give. ALSO CONFIRMED IN PASSING: in 1872 the physical DUPLICATA card lies across the opening and MOVES BETWEEN EXPOSURES — covering the left page in one and the right in the next — so reading both exposures gives the whole opening. That is this archive's own recorded rule and it is what made 1872 readable.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Morti 1869 atto 63, ALFIO NICOTRA read in the original done	Mascali. The index of 1869 names an ALFIO NICOTRA, and «Nicotra Alfio» is the father named in BOTH earlier Mascali Nicotra death acts — Salvadore 1848 atto 118 and Angela 1851 atto 108. A death act names the deceased's OWN parents, so this act reaches a generation ABOVE the two decedents and potentially alongside Simone. The act was read in the original and by native-scale region crops.	ALFIO NICOTRA DIED AT MASCALI ON 13 MAY 1869, AGED SEVENTY-THREE — so born about 1796 — «di professione lavorante, NATO IN GIARRE e domiciliato in questo comune, FIGLIO DEL FU GIUSEPPE E DELLA FU CATERINA [surname], MORTA IN GIARRE». Declarants Gioacchino Lo Po fu Antonino, 45, becchino, and Antonio Rossi fu Leonardo, 60, lavorante, both illiterate. SO A GIARRE-BORN NICOTRA WHO DIED AT MASCALI, AND HIS FATHER WAS GIUSEPPE NICOTRA OF GIARRE. Simone Nicotra was born about 1776 and Alfio about 1796, so GIUSEPPE IS OF SIMONE'S OWN GENERATION and a brother or close kinsman is the natural reading. THAT IS NOT PROVED AND IS NOT CLAIMED. TWO THINGS HONESTLY NOT ESTABLISHED. FIRST, in the ACT BODY the surname is written in a looser hand and NICOTRA CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM NICOLOSI with confidence; the INDEX entry is unambiguous and crisp, so the index reading is what is recorded and the body is flagged. SECOND, the mother's surname is ILLEGIBLE — it may be Pennisi, Podarsi or Pedara. Giarre holds a «Giuseppe Nicotra x Pennisi Leonarda» household, but that wife's forename is LEONARDA and this one is CATERINA, so IT IS NOT A MATCH on present evidence and must not be written up as one.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Morti 1828 atti 49 and 103, the Tomarchio-Nicotra and Bassi-Dajdone households done	Mascali. The 1828 Tavola names a NICOTRA and a DAJDONE as MOTHERS — the first trace of either surname at Mascali. Both children's death acts were read in the original to place the women.	ATTO 49, 14 June 1828: CATARINA TOMARCHIO, aged TWENTY-TWO so born about 1806, braccialiera, «FIGLIA DEL FU CARMELO e di MARIA NICOTRA DOMICILIATA ANCHE IVI» — so MARIA NICOTRA WAS A LIVING WIDOW AT MASCALI IN JUNE 1828. A child born about 1806 puts that marriage BEFORE civil registration began in 1820, so the marriage act is PARISH-ONLY and not on Antenati. ATTO 103, 15 November 1828: SUOR MARGHERITA BASSI, A NUN, aged THIRTY-THREE so born about 1795, «CIVILE POSSIDENTE», «FIGLIA DEL FU D. DOMENICO e di D.a SANTA DAJDONE DOMICILIATA IN QUESTO COMUNE» — so DONNA SANTA DAJDONE WAS A LIVING WIDOW AT MASCALI IN NOVEMBER 1828. The «D.» and «D.a» are DON and DONNA: this is a titled, propertied family. BOTH WOMEN ARE OF SIMONE AND MARIANNA'S OWN GENERATION, not the next one down — Maria Nicotra born perhaps 1780-85, Santa Dajdone perhaps 1770-75. NEITHER WIDOW EVER APPEARS AS A DECEDENT: the whole of Mascali Morti to 1872 was swept for them afterwards and they are not in it. A SISTER OF MARIANNA IS PLAUSIBLE FOR SANTA DAJDONE AND IS NOT PROVED.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MASCALI Morti 1831, the one year of the sweep that cannot be read outstanding	Mascali. The 1820-1872 Morti sweep for NICOTRA and DAIDONE read fifty-one of its fifty-two years. 1831 is the exception. Antenati stamps these plates «Faded Document» and the ink really is gone in places; read at native 2319px and by region crops the Tavola gives G, L, M then P, R, S, T, and the run from M into P — exactly where an N section would sit — holds one entry, no. 74, whose surname cannot be resolved.	NOT ESTABLISHED, AND DELIBERATELY NOT COUNTED AS A NEGATIVE. NO DUPLICATE DEPOSIT EXISTS: Mascali has a single Morti deposit for 1831, 1832 and 1833 (Stato civile della restaurazione 16894, 16895, 16896), and the only other Mascali series on Antenati is «Deputazione del Regno», which is 1714-1752 Riveli di anime e di terre and not register copies at all. So the two-deposit rule that rescued GIARRE Morti 1850 has nothing to offer here. What would settle it is the Archivio di Stato di Catania's own holding, or a parish copy.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Morti 1842 atto 189 read in the original: ALFIO NICOTRA, and the archive's own inference tested done	Giarre. The Giarre Morti sweep recorded «ALFIO x PAPPALARDO ROSA (1831, 1836) and then ALFIO HIMSELF in 1842». THAT IDENTIFICATION WAS AN INFERENCE FROM THE TAVOLA, never checked against the act, and it mattered because the Mascali sweep had just produced a SECOND Alfio Nicotra — Mascali Morti 1869 atto 63, born Giarre about 1796, son of a Giuseppe and a CATERINA. If the 1842 man were a different Alfio, the Rosa Pappalardo husband could have survived, remarried, and BE the Mascali man. The act was read to settle it.	THE INFERENCE HOLDS, AND THE ACT SAYS MORE THAN THE TAVOLA DID. Act 189, 18 December 1842, declared by Nicolo Russo, 51, becchino, and Giuseppe Trovatello, 40, becchino: died on 16 December «nella Casa di sua abitazione ALFIO NICOTRA D'ANNI SETTANTA, SPOSO DI ROSA PAPPALARDO, nato in Giarre, di professione BRACCIALE, domiciliato ivi, FIGLIO DI FU GIUSEPPE e di FU LEONARDA PENNISI». SO THE 1842 MAN IS THE ROSA PAPPALARDO HUSBAND, confirmed by the act and not by the surname. HE WAS BORN ABOUT 1772 — the age word is cramped and SIXTY cannot be absolutely excluded, which would put him at 1782; either reading places him IN SIMONE NICOTRA'S OWN GENERATION, Simone being born about 1776. AND THEREFORE THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT ALFIO NICOTRAS, both Giarre-born, both sons of a GIUSEPPE, dying twenty-seven years and one comune apart: ALFIO A, born about 1772, husband of ROSA PAPPALARDO, son of Giuseppe x LEONARDA PENNISI, dead at Giarre in 1842; and ALFIO B, born about 1796, father of the 1851 Mascali Angela by SANTA PREVITERA, son of Giuseppe x CATERINA, dead at Mascali in 1869. THEY CANNOT BE THE SAME MAN AND THEY ARE NOT THE SAME HOUSEHOLD. WHAT IT OPENS: Alfio A's parents, GIUSEPPE NICOTRA and LEONARDA PENNISI, stand a full generation ABOVE Simone and both were dead by December 1842. If Simone is their son too, that is Simone's parentage found. NOT PROVED, and the Giarre Morti sweep of 1820-1860 contains no Giuseppe Nicotra as a decedent, so Giuseppe probably died before civil registration began in 1820 and is parish-only. LEONARDA PENNISI, however, would be filed under PENNISI in a Giarre death Tavola, and she died at some point before 1842 — that is a readable target this archive has never looked for.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — data/giarre-arks.tsv holds 321 MACCHIA registers filed as Giarre, and one of them was read as Giarre correction	Giarre / Macchia (Catania). While resolving containers for a Giarre Morti sweep after 1860, a manifest label read «Macchia» where the ark list said Giarre. Every manifest carries its own comune in its label, so the list was tested against it.	THE ARK LIST IS MIXED. data/giarre-arks.tsv holds 808 rows; 321 OF THEM ARE MACCHIA REGISTERS, NOT GIARRE. The discriminator is exact: every ark beginning an_ua1999 is Macchia and every other ark is Giarre. EIGHT WERE CHECKED AGAINST THEIR MANIFEST LABELS, spread across fifty years — an_ua19993187 (1821), an_ua19993197 (1831), an_ua19993209 (1842), an_ua19993218 (1850), an_ua19993231 (1862), an_ua19994600 (1866), an_ua19994601 (1867), an_ua19994603 (1871) — AND ALL EIGHT SAY MACCHIA. The two groups also have ZERO OVERLAPPING SEGNATURA VALUES, so they are two distinct archival series and not a duplicate deposit of one. MACCHIA IS ITS OWN COMUNE, later absorbed into Giarre, and its registers were never a second witness to Giarre's. WHAT THIS BREAKS. build_coverage.py and build_holdings.py both map the whole file to «Giarre», so this archive's holdings and coverage pages CREDIT GIARRE WITH 321 REGISTERS IT DOES NOT HOLD and show Macchia nowhere at all. THE FIX IS MECHANICAL AND IS NOT APPLIED HERE: split the an_ua1999 rows into data/macchia-arks.tsv and register that file in both tools. It changes two visible pages, so it is left for a deliberate decision rather than done at the tail of a long session.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — MACCHIA Morti 1862, read for NICOTRA and DAIDONE (and it is Macchia, not Giarre) done	Macchia (Catania), a comune later absorbed into Giarre. This volume was opened believing it to be GIARRE Morti 1862, because data/giarre-arks.tsv files it as Giarre; its own manifest label reads «Macchia > 1862» and its Patria column names Macchia, Milo and Dagala, which are Macchia's own hamlets. Read as part of the hunt for Simone Nicotra, who would have been eighty-six in 1862.	A SURNAME-ORDER TAVOLA WITH PATRIA AND BOTH PARENTS, read whole at the two sections that matter. D = D'AQUINO Alfio(14), D'URSO Giuseppa(19), D'URSO Angela(50), D'URSO Michele(106), D'URSO Francesco(108). N = NUCIFORA Leonarda(29), NICOLOSI Rosario(52). NO NICOTRA AND NO DAIDONE. The reach is Macchia's dead in 1862 and nothing else — it answers for Macchia, not for Giarre, and the year is NOT a Giarre negative.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Morti 1866: no index in the volume, and the archive declares the whole book degraded part	Giarre. Opened to hunt SIMONE NICOTRA, who would have been ninety in 1866, and MARIANNA DAIDONE. Container LDmez4G, ark an_ua80855, segnatura 8040; the manifest label confirms «Giarre > 1866» and the register's own closing line reads «mille ottocento SESSANTASEI», checked by native-scale crop because the hand makes sess- and sett- easy to confuse.	THE VOLUME HAS NO TAVOLA AND NO INDEX OF ANY KIND. It runs act 1 on image 2 to act 218 on image 75, and image 76 is the back cover. There is nothing to search but the acts themselves — seventy-four openings — so 1866 IS NOT SWEPT AND IS NOT A NEGATIVE. AND THERE IS NO SECOND DEPOSIT TO FALL BACK ON: the row that looks like one in the ark list, an_ua19994600, is MACCHIA 1866, a different comune. THE ARCHIVE'S OWN CONDITION CARDS ARE ON THE BACK COVER and they are unusually blunt: «PAG. ONDULATE — PAG. TRASPARENTE — PAG. MACCHIATA — TUTTO IL VOLUME — IMPOSSIBILE FARE DI MEGLIO». Wavy, show-through and stained, across the WHOLE volume, and the photographers state they could do no better. So even reading the 218 acts would be work against a book the Archivio has already declared unimprovable. ALSO LEARNED HERE, AND IT IS THE SECOND 403: fetching a volume's last canvas at width 1800 returns «Requests for scales in excess of 100% are not allowed» because those end-leaves are smaller than 1800px. That is Cantaloupe refusing to upscale, NOT the rate limiter; the fix is to ask for /full/max/ and it works at once. Eight such pages failed this way and all eight came back on the first retry.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Matrimoni 1845–1860 swept for a NICOTRA GROOM (15 of 16 years) done	Giarre. THE REASON THIS WAS THE RIGHT BOOK: a marriage act names BOTH sets of parents, so a son of SIMONE NICOTRA marrying here would be written «figlio di Simone Nicotra e Marianna Daidone» — Simone attached, not inferred. Simone's daughter Rosaria was born in 1820, so sons born 1805-1825 would marry roughly 1830-1855. The 1820s were already read across three comuni; 1830-1844 were already read at Giarre; THIS IS THE REMAINING GAP. All sixteen containers were resolved from their arks and EVERY ONE VERIFIED AGAINST ITS OWN MANIFEST LABEL as Giarre before reading, after this archive's Macchia lesson. These Tavole index by the GROOM'S SURNAME ONLY, so a bride of the name never appears under her own letter.	NO NICOTRA GROOM IN ANY OF THE FIFTEEN READABLE YEARS. The N sections hold NICOLOSI(1846), NICIFORA(1847), NEO(1849), NERI and NUCIFORA(1850), NICOSIA(1852), NUCIFORA(1855), NICOLO(1857), NUCIFORA(1859) — the whole family of look-alikes and not one Nicotra. FOUR YEARS RULE N BLANK OR HAVE NO N SECTION AT ALL: 1845 and 1848 rule it empty (1848 rules O empty too), and 1853, 1856, 1858 and 1860 run M straight into O or P. TWO FINDINGS WORTH MORE THAN THE NEGATIVE. FIRST, 1851 IS ORDERED BY THE GROOM'S FORENAME, not his surname — «Alfio Nucifora», «Domenico Calabrese», «Nunzio Torrisi» — so there is no N section at all and a surname search finds nothing while appearing to work. All 64 of its marriages were read down the surname column instead. That is the same trap Mascali springs from 1866, and it is now documented at Giarre fifteen years earlier. SECOND, 1857 WAS SETTLED BY THE ACT AND NOT BY THE INDEX: its single N entry reads «Nico?a» at native resolution and cannot be separated from NICOTRA by eye, so act 67 was found and read — «Mro SALVADORE NICOLO di anni TRENTUNO, nato in questo Comune, FIGLIO DI FU GIACOMO e di ANGELA GRASSO», marrying Venera Finocchiaro. «Grasso Angela» matches the Tavola's mother, so it is the same entry, and THE SURNAME IS NICOLO. ONE YEAR IS NOT SWEPT AND IS NOT A NEGATIVE: 1854 HAS NO TAVOLA AND NO INDEX OF ANY KIND — the volume closes with the Sindaco's certification of «SESSANTACINQUE atti di solenne promessa» and then a blank printed form under the archive's «Blank Page(s)» card. Searching it means reading all 65 acts. GIARRE IS THEREFORE BLIND IN BOTH SERIES FOR 1854, since Giarre Morti 1854 is also unread for an unrelated reason. WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE QUESTION: Simone Nicotra had no son who married at Giarre between 1845 and 1860, unless that son married in 1854.
11 Oct 2026	Antenati — GIARRE Morti 1854: the Tavola mapped from its start, the D section read, and the N proved ABSENT part	Giarre. This year had been recorded as «opened and not safely read» because two years' indexes appeared interleaved in the container's tail, with the advice to try «the 1854 duplicate deposit». BOTH HALVES OF THAT NEEDED TESTING: the Macchia split of 11 October 2026 had just proved that Giarre's apparent duplicates are a different comune, and nobody had ever read the Tavola from its BEGINNING. Container Lme8WWa, 127 images, label verified «Giarre > 1854».	THE TAVOLA IS NOW FULLY MAPPED AND THE «INTERLEAVING» IS EXPLAINED. 1854 runs B and C on image 120, D, E and F on 121, G, I, L and the start of M on 122, and M COMPLETING ON 123'S LEFT PAGE at entry 224. THERE IT STOPS. Image 123's RIGHT page opens a different year — one N entry dated 2 GENNARO 1856 — and images 124 to 126 carry P, Q, R and onward with EVERY ENTRY DATED 1856. THE BINDER PUT 1856'S N-TO-Z RUN WHERE 1854'S BELONGS. So 1854 HAS NO N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V OR Z AT ALL. The N section is NOT UNREAD; IT IS NOT IN THE VOLUME, and no re-reading will produce it. The only route to 1854's N is the acts themselves — at least 229 of them by the M section's own numbering. THE CLERK'S OWN CROSS-REFERENCE CONFIRMS THE READING: the C section on image 120 ends «SEGUE ALL'ULTIMA PAGINA», and image 127, the last page, duly carries the C overflow — so the volume's structure is deliberate and understood, not damaged. WHAT WAS GAINED. THE D SECTION HAD NEVER BEEN REACHED BY ANYONE AND IS NOW READ: D'AGATA Tommaso(66), D'MAURO Filippo(75), DEL PIZZO Rosario(91), with E ruled blank beneath. NO DAIDONE IN 1854. AND THE STRAY MAN IS PLACED AT LAST: «NICOTRA SEBASTIANO, ACI REALE, BRACCIALE» is ATTO 2 OF 1856, not an 1854 death — which is exactly why checking Giarre's 1855 and 1856 Tavole for him had failed to settle it, and why his act (Giarre Morti 1856 atto 2) is now a cheap and specific thing to read. THE ADVICE THIS ROW REPLACES WAS WRONG: there is no Giarre duplicate for 1854; segnatura 16485 / an_ua19993223 is MACCHIA.

The questions each of these would answer →