Extraction of the Cloz Parish Records

images of Parish records courtesy Allen E. Rizzi

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Microfilm Source Number

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It has been almost ten years since our family first discovered that the Parish Records of the Trentini village of Cloz had been microfilmed by the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Salt Lake City, Utah).

The first leg of our extraction project began with the earliest records. They begin about the year 1565 in response to the edict of the Council of Trent which made the Catholic Church responsible fo keeping a written record of vital statistics. Until the year 1600, however, the records are somewhat sporadic. From 1600 we extracted birth, marriage and death records up to the year 1800. Then the extraction part of the project was put aside for a year or so while the information was computerized using Personal Ancestral File, a family history database program. The second leg extracted birth, marriage and death records from 1800 to 1900. The third leg has now been completed as we have now extracted the birth records to the end of the microfilm which ends December 31, 1923. There are about 13,500 names in this database.

We did not try to standardize the spelling of names as hundreds of names would be involved and we were not even aware that the evolution would be occurring when we started with the earliest records. For instance, in 1600, the surname Rizzi was spelled Ritz and likewise Angeli was Agnol. We made the change-overs as they came into the records. Also about 1780-1800, the given names evolved from being recorded with Latin emphasis to Italian: a man’s birth record may have listed his name as Joannes but his marriage and death records list him as Giovanni while in the earliest records Joannes would have been Zonan.

We have tried to convert our records to a searchable .html database but there are limitations. First is accessibility. When we have tried to search other large databases, such as the excellent Fondo database offered by Stan and Jalynn Bertagnolli, the computer in our home cannot handle its size. While trying to download the first age of the database, our connection "times out." We have been able to search their database using a computer on a high speed "wireless" connection, but realize not everyone has that option.

The second problem is manageability. It takes a huge amount of time to upload the database files to the Internet and therefore making additions, corrections, or other changes became a dreaded task. We feel that there is a very reasonable and workable solution.

If you know or believe one of your ancestors was born in Cloz before 1923, please e-mail us that person's name, date of birth or any other information you may have, such as parents' names.

Even if you don't have much information, we are always willing to search our database for you!

We can either make a gedcom file to send you the information we've found in a format that can be read by a Family History Program or we can prepare a text file that can be read using a word processing program.

The gedcom file will include that person's ancestors and is easily e-mailed to you. You may already have a family history computer program which can open gedcom files. With that program you should be able to open the file we e-mail you and use the information as you wish.

However, if you do not have a Family History program on your computer, one can be downloaded at no charge from this site:

http://www.familysearch.org

For step-by-step instructions on how to download this program, click here.

We have done our best to extract the record correctly, and invite you to verify our information, if you wish, by ordering a copy of the *film through a Family History Center of the LDS church if you have one nearby where you live. It is an awesome experience to read these records!

*FHL film 1388654-12150 beginning with item 12 Cloz Parish Record

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