The Sassano Project
Do you have ancestors from Sassano? Then I have a website for you.
Sassano is a small hillside village in the middle of Italy's Mezzogiorno. It is in the province of Salerno, in the Campagna region.
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Sassano, Salerno, Campagna, Italy |
My great grandfather was born in Sassano and he was my immigrant ancestor. He is the reason that I obtained the birth, death, and marriage records for the commune of Sassano from the Latter Day Saints Library. I have them in microfilm form and I have been through most of them searching for the Barbella cognome.
As I was searching, a funny thing happened. I began to feel a connection to the names I was looking at. I began to feel as though I was a part of this community. First you might find the record of a person's birth. Then you discover their marriage record. Finally you see their children being born. It made me feel like I was a part of the community. That is why I am now indexing these records and making them available on-line in The Sassano Project.
This is, at least, a small part of the reason that I made the voyage to Sassano in the spring of 2014. I can't begin to tell you how much I felt like I was "coming home".
I met in the village's mother church with the local priest. I had the privilege to observe some of the vast holdings of church records on the shelves there.
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Don Otello Russo in the office at San Giovanni Evangelista |
I went to the town office and found the originals of the civil records I have on microfilm.
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Officials at the Ufficio Di Anagrafe - Sassano, Italy |
My father and my grandfather were both born in Brooklyn. Yet, somehow, inexplicably, I have been drawn into a relationship with Sassano that I simply cannot describe.
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Original Stato Civile |
My project to index the records of Sassano can be seen at this link. It is, by no means, complete. The project includes birth records from 1866 to 1873. I have been working primarily with the birth records but there are also a few years of death records available.
My work has been simplified with the addition of a computer controlled microfilm reader. I can easily scroll through the microfilm tapes and magnify sections. I can even obtain digital images of individual records without the need of a camera. Please let me know if you would like me to find a particular record for you. Just leave a comment below and when I next find myself at the library I will try to help you.
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Cimetero di Sassano |
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