This entry details how to go about doing a search the “long way” by working backwards from what you know. Often the long way is not the quickest way to get the information you are seeking, but in the end you may find a lot more ancestors along the way.

The Question

On 3 November 2006, Blake E. Relle sent the following email to the Rootsweb ITA-Sicily-Gen Rootsweb mailing list:

First Search

My first thought was that Blake must have missed the marriage record. I looked at FHL 1964001, which contains the following records for Alia:

I conducted a quick search for the years 1862 to 1868 but was unable to find the record either.

There may be several reasons why you can’t find a marriage record at the particular time and place that you expect. It could be that the couple was married earier than you thought. For example, when working backwards from the children to the parents, we usually assume the parents were married a year or two before their first child was born. However, it may have taken longer than normal for a couple to start having children, or perhaps they had an earlier child that died at an early age or was stillborn. Another possibility is that the couple was married in a different town, then moved before they had any children. Because you may not know what happened, it is usually best to work backwards from what you already know.

Working Backward

In this case, I assumed that Liborio and Mary were not married in Alia, since the email correspondent indicated he had already searched the Alia marriage records. So started with the children of Liborio Riili and Mary DiBetta, working backwards to find some clue for some other town where they may have married. Earlier emails provided details regarding these children. First, from 29 October 2005:

Then, from 4 December 2005:

Alia is located in the hills southeast of Palermo in the province of Palermo, Sicily. It is almost directly south of Termini Imerese:

Alia: Giuseppe and Rosaria’s marriage

Based on these emails, the most recent document I could target in my search is the marriage certificate for Giuseppe Riili and Rosaria Tauli, 1896, in Alia.

I searched the marriage records from Alia in FHL 1964002, which contains:

It was fairly easy to find this document:

The marriage record shows that Giuseppe Saverio Riili, 19, married Salvatrice Rosaria Taulli, 21, on 8 February 1896. The parents of the groom are Librio Riili and Salvatrice Dibetta, both deceased. The parents of the bride are Salvatore Taulli and Filippa Taravella.

One interesting fact from these records is that Rosaria is the bride’s middle name, and her first name is Salvatrice. Likewise, the groom’s mother’s name is Salvatrice and not Mary. This really helps as we continue to search backward, so that we are not confused about whether we have correctly found subsequent records.

One other thing to note from this film is that it includes 10-year indexes for marriages. I copied the sections of these indexes where other Riili marriages may be found, in case they are helpful for later searches in this family.

Alia: Riili births

Next, I performed searches for the birth certificates for the Riili children — Giuseppe (1876), Rosalia (1868), and Angela (1866). For these I used

FHL 1963999, which contains:

These documents were likewise easy to find. First, Giuseppe Saverio Riili was born on 19 March, 1976:

His parents are listed as Liborio Riili, 40, and Salvadora Di Betta. Note that the age of 40 is often used on birth certificates to indicate the person was in their 40s and does not usually indicate a specific age.

Rosalia Riili was born on 23 February, 1868:

Her parents are Liborio Riili, 30, born to Luciano, and Salvatora Di Betta, 22, born to Saverio. Finally, Angela Riili was born on 11 January, 1866:

Her parents are Liborio Riili, again 30, born to Luciano, and Salvatora Di Betta, born to Saverio.

Sometimes birth records will indicate the town where the father or mother is born. However, in this case, all we can conclude is that the Liborio and Salvatora were indeed living in Alia when their children were born, making it likely (but not certain) that they were also married in Alia.

Alia: Giuseppe and Rosaria Allegati

Working with my original assumption that this was an unusual case, I decided to examine the Allegati for the marriage of Giuseppe Riili and Rosaria Taulli. The Allegati is a collection of records that were presented at the time of a marriage, documenting the birth dates of the bride and groom as well as the possible death of any of their parents. I thought these might contain a clue as to where Giuseppe’s parents were born.

The Allegati for Giuseppe and Rosaria begins with a

cover page and then contains seven documents:

1. The second publication of the marriage, with a date of 2 February 1896. A couple’s marriage was announced several weeks in advance, with the pubblicazione, or publications, placed on the door of the church or in the town square.
2. The first publication of the marriage, with a date of 25 January 1896.
3. A certificate testifying that the pending marriage was publicized properly, dated 6 February 1896.
4. Copy of birth certificate for Salvatrice Rosaria Taulli, the bride, born on 19 February 1874. Her father was Salvatore Taulli, 27 years old, born to the deceased Liborio. Her mother was Filippa Taravella, 22, born to Antonino. The copy is dated 24 January 1896.
5. Extract of death certificate for Salvatrice Di Betta, the mother of the groom, who died at the age of 40 on 19 October 1881. Her father was Saverio and her mother was the deceased Nicoletta Pilleteri. Her husband at the time of her death was Giuseppe Panefruito. The extract is also dated 24 January 1896.
6. Extract of death certificate for Liborio Riili, the father of the groom, who died at the age of 48 on 28 October 1877. He was born in Alia to the deceased Luciano Riili and the deceased Angela Monteleone. He was married to Salvatora Di Betta. Note that the date of death is shown twice on this document, once as the number 1877 and once in handwriting as 1873. Since the groom was born in 1876, the correct date should be 1877.
7. Extract of birth certificate for Giuseppe Saverio Riili, the groom, born on 19 March 1876. His father was Liborio Riili, 40, and his mother was Salvatora Di Betta.
8. A final document covering two pages that I am not able to decipher completely, but I believe it states that the couple has permission to marry. It is dated 22 January 1896, before any of the marriage publications.

These documents show that Liborio, Giuseppe’s father, was born in Alia, but they only say that Salvatora was living there. It is possible she was born somewhere else and that they were married in her hometown.

Alia: Rosalia/Salvatora’s second marriage

To try to find Salvatora’s birth town, I decided to examine the documents for her second marriage, to Giuseppe Panefruito.

Alia: Giuseppe and Rosaria Allegati

Salvatora Di Betta married Giuseppe Panefruito on 25 January 1879 (she died only two years later). Giuseppe was 26, born in Alia to the deceased Nunzio Panefruito and Rosa Blanda. Salvatora was 32, born in Alia to Saverio Di Betta and the deceased Nicoletta Pilliteri.

This confirms that Salvatora Di Betta was indeed born in Alia. The allegati starts with a cover page and then contains additional information on the couple:

• The certificate that testifies that the marriage was publicized, dated 25 January.
• The birth certificate for Salvadora Di Betta, born 20 March 1846. Her father was Saverio Di Betta, 36, and her mother was Nicoletta Pillitteri, 37. She was baptized on 22 March.
• The birth certificate for Giusppe Panefruito, born 6 January 1843. His father, Nunzio Panefruito, 40, was not present when the certificate was filled out. His mother, Rosa Blanca, was 20. He was baptized on 7 January.
• The death certificate for Liborio Riili, the first husband of Salvatora Di Betta, who died on 28 October 1877. This is the same information as the previous extract.

Alia: Liborio and Salvatora’s marriage

Every indication points to both Liborio and Salvatrice being born and raised their whole lives in Alia, so they were very likely married there! After all this searching, I decided I ought to go back and check the marriage records from FHL 1964001 more carefully.

Both times, I focused my search on the indexes, since there were many marriages each year and it is tedious to search them individually. However, during my second, more thorough examination, I noticed that the index for 1863 was incomplete:

It ends with the records for a Puglisi marriage, without covering anything from R to Z! Since Salvatora Di Betta was born in 1843, she could easily have been married at age 20 in 1863. I decided to search this year record-by-record, and hit the jackpot at record number 46:

Since this record is an Atti Di Solenne Promessa, it contains three additional pages:

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3

Liborio Riili, 36, married Salvadora Di Betta, 17, on 8 November 1863. Despite being much older, Liborio is listed as celibe, meaning he had never been married before. Liborio’s father, Luciano, was dead at this time, and his mother, Angela Monteleone, lived in Alia. Salvadora’s father, Saverio, and her mother, Nicoletta Pillitteri, were both living in Alia. This document indicates that the allegati should include the birth certificates of the bride and groom, plus the certifiicate stating the marriage was properly announced, the death certiificate of the father of the groom (Luciano), and the death certificate of the groom’s grandfather.

Conclusions

Mystery solved! Liborio Riili and Salvadora Di Betta were married on 8 November 1863 in Alia. This search could have ended much sooner had I been more careful checking the marriage records the first time, but I may not have recognized that the bride’s name was Salvadora, not Mary. Working backwards with a more complete search resulted in a treasure trove of documents. Sometimes the “long way around” can pay off!

Postscript

While looking through the marriages in:

I got copies of the 10-year marriage index that dates from 1874 to 1910:

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3
• Page 4