Gli Archivi di Erice

Welcome to the Erice Archives!

This site allows photographic images from the historical archives of the main parishes of the city of Erice, in western Sicily, to be viewed. The archives are organised in collections called 'volumes', the earliest of which date back to around the year 1400. The photographed data in these volumes includes Baptisms, Confirmations, Weddings, Burials and Census returns, collectively known as the 'Quinque Libros'. As of today, 206 volumes of this type have been photographed, ranging from 1422-1845 and are available for viewing online.

History

Erice was known as 'Monte San Giuliano' until the year 1934, so its records use this name. Following the 'Council of Trent' in 1563, all parishes were required to record Baptisms and Weddings, but in Erice the churches of S.Cataldo and the Matrice were already doing his before this edict, and by 1579 all 4 of its parishes were registering Baptisms and 3 were registering Weddings. In 1614 it also became obligatory to record Burials but the main parishes of S.Cataldo and Matrice were already registering these by 1591. By the year 1600, 24 volumes were available in these archives covering the Quinque Libros, while 25 different volumes cover them in 1650. Confirmations started being recorded in Erice in 1668, while Census returns started in 1734.

This collection is therefore of great historical value.

Registration

The photographed documents from the archives are copyrighted, and to access them online, it is first necessary to register. By registering, the user accepts the terms of use of the site, which specify that any images cannot be used for commercial purposes. They are only for personal use.",

After completing the registration data, the user may freely access the site, using the login and password just supplied.

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NEW: Search the records by name!

A new 'name search' mechanism has been introduced, which identifies a total of 11,034 baptismal records, 4,410 burial records and 8,793 wedding records. This makes it easier to find documents. The transcriptions are not exhaustive: they are based on the personal records that Dr. Tonina Scuderi has transcribed for her own research, and which we are now making generally available. So, if you are lucky, and your research overlaps with hers, you will be able to easily find data on these ancestors.

If the name search does not identify a specific record, you can still use the previous search mechanism, based on type of record, church name, date and volume number.

Searching the records

This can be done either by searching for a specific document or by indicating a name. The 'specific document' search uses 'type' of record (e.g. baptism, wedding, death, etc), the 'church' involved (e.g. Matrice, San Antonio, San Cataldo, San Giuliano, etc), the 'date' or the number of the 'volume'. Any combination of these parameters can be used. It is also possible to not specify anything and simply scroll through the list describing the volumes.

The 'name search' refers to the newly-added feature which allows the user to also search by first and last names. These parameters may be combined with the previous mechanisms, or used independently. So if the date or church of a record is not known, just providing a name might be enough to locate it.

206 volumes have been completely photographed, resulting in over 29,000 images, all of which can be viewed. A new user interface shows which volumes are available. If a name search is used, then all instances of that name will also be shown. To view the photographed records, the user must either select a volume, or select a name. This will cause details of the volume involved to be seen, and the 'Show PHOTOS' button can be used as before to scroll through the records.

Click here for more details.