Hi,

I just recently ordered the civil registration records from LDS of Decollatura Italy to trace the Cerra family line back. They were filmed at an almost microscopic size, unfortunately, and are incredibly hard to read, even with a magnifying glass. Does anyone know where or whom may have access to these records that may be more legible?

Thanks.

The new microfilm readers like the ProScan 2000 will allow you to magnify the records; they also have the ability to enhance and clean up images.

My old center which closed last year did not have the newer readers but the local library which recently became an affiliate center has 4 of the ProScans They're great.

Did your Cerra family settle in NE Pennsylvania?

Biff

I was just using the reader, and may have luck with the printer/readers at my LDS center. Thanks.

Yes, my Cerra family settled in the Carbondale area.

Thanks again.

You can also access records at Family Search for Decollatura, Catanzaro, Italy but you will need to register a username and password. Use this link:

familysearch.org/searc...2F12831480

I was born and raised in Carbondale; my paternal grandparents were Giuseppe Epifano aka Joseph Bifano and Fenicia "Fannie" Mancuso.

Have you seen Mary Jo Loyd's website on Cdale and her Italian ancestors from Decollatura?
www.italygenes.com/

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Biff

Bless you all. You have helped my poor eyes immensely with this link.

Thanks again.

One more question. I had great luck and found the individual I was looking for on the LDS site. Am I correct in assuming that the phrase "di anni" after the parents' names is the age of the individual parent at the time? Would any one be able to help me decipher how old Guiseppe and Cecilia are? I'm having trouble figuring out the number value written. I'd like to go back one or two generations if the records are there.

Thanks again so much.

Glad you found what you were looking for. Yes, it looks like Giuseppe was 33 and Cecilia was 26 at the time of the birth. These are rough numbers usually so if you are going to look for their births look a few years before and a few years after - sometimes people got "younger" during the years as age was not an important piece of information to most. The most accurate would be marriage records and pubblicazioni so try to locate those if you can. Sometimes you can find some amazing things in the pubblicazioni or allegati - especially if earlier generation were deceased.