Work in Progress ...

The Ascoli Database
Nevill Colclough and Janet Bagg

BICA Issue No. 8: June 1992

The project

One of the projects that we are currently undertaking at Kent involves the creation of a database relating to the town of Ascoli Satriano in Puglia, southern Italy. At present most of the data relates to the early eighteenth century and derives from three Stato delle Anime (State of Souls) registers¹ and from an important taxation document, the Catasto Onciario. The purpose of creating this database is to facilitate the study of kinship, alliance and residence in the town over time. We are at present working on three studies using of this database; marriage choice and rechainement (N.Colclough), household composition (O.E. Wesley-Smith) and spatial aspects of kin relations (J. Bagg). Dr. Bagg has also used the data to explore methods of information presentation (Bagg 1991) and for practical classes in a course for graduate students.

The setting

The small, but historically important, town of Ascoli Satriano (population: 1700, 2,000; 1991, 7,200) is situated on the south-western fringes of the Tavoliere in north Puglia. This was one of the most important administrative, service and commercial grain producing centres of the south Tavoliere throughout the early modern period. With its early commercialisation of agriculture and persistent tradition of inward migration from Campania and south Puglia it provides a strategically located test case of the Delille thesis (Delille 1988). In recent years the economic history and political economy of Tavoliere latifundia and north Apulian transhumance systems have become the focus of both Italian and international research (eg. Marino 1988).

This area has seen, over the past three centuries, rapid, often turbulent, rural change and a radical restructuring of the relationship between town and country. At the beginning of our period, Ascoli's economy was dominated by the Regia Dogana (Royal Neapolitan Customhouse) with its careful, ecologically sensitive, ancien régime balance of state regulated inverse transhumance, commercialized grain production and peripheral feudalism (all heavily dependent on imported labour from outside the region). This gave way to a gradual nineteenth century conversion from pastoral to arable farming, the emergence of specialized latifundia cereal estates and rural syndicalism, to be followed in the twentieth century by the widespread mechanization of agriculture, labour migration and land reform. In the process, Ascoli's urban role was sequentially transformed from administrative and trading centre, to agro-town to paese di passaggio .

The ultimate aim of the project is to relate these changes to variations in patterns of repeat marriage, affinal rechainement , the nature, dynamics and spatial distribution of groups within neighbourhoods and patterns of migration. We intend that the database will be extended chronologically and will provide a resource for a series of projects in the future.

The data

From the late 17th century, Ascoli has a wide range of well balanced and, for the most part, continuous archival sources. There are long series of high quality State of Souls listings (mainly 18th century), near complete life-event registers and marriage dispensations (from 1707), population censuses and civic registers (from 1806), and contemporary computerized, family registers. This documentation is sufficient to enable us to reconstruct complete genealogies and marriage choices for core families over 10-12 generations and to plot changes in the formation and dispersion of households and the spatial distribution of kin and affines within the town. Rural and urban cadastres exist from 1753 as well as post-unification agricultural censuses and surveys and further estate records and notaries books (16th-19th centuries).

The Ascoli State of Souls registers give information about place of origin and parents (plus their places of origin) for each individual. Persons are listed within houses for which the type of occupation (owned, rented, etc.) is usually given. Houses are listed within districts consisting of streets, piazze and contrade . The registers always list the districts in the same order, starting at the Palaggio Vescovile (Bishop's Palace) and ending at the Duke's residence. This may be a processional route.

Creating the Database

The core of the database consists, at present, of seven tables. These record information on houses, their occupants, the kin relations of occupants, notes and the location of houses in the town (see table descriptions below and diagram). The database is implemented using the Ingres relational database management system, a major commercial product. Entry, linkage, editing and retrieval employ a combination of special menu driven interfaces and raw SQL queries.

We entered data from the first (1731) register into a slightly different structure to that described below. This was because no record linkage had been performed at this time. As well as the relationship table, the database had a table of parents and non-resident spouses, recording names and places of origin in each case.

At the next stage, we gave all identical pairs of parents the same person identifiers. Then these unique sets of parents were linked to matching couples (resident or not). Where these matched resident persons (taking into account knowledge of the spouse) we gave each individual the identifier from the 'register person' table. The non-resident spouses and parents were added to the general person table with their own unique identifiers. All of the relationship information was added to the main relationship table. The intermediate 'relative table' was retained within the database for historical reasons but does not form part of the everyday working data.

We have added data from later registers interactively by means of an interface application consisting of several forms. The locations are the same for all registers apart from extra ones added to represent new districts in the growing town. Each register entry has, at present, a complete set of unique house records. It was decided that the identification of distinct houses between registers was more difficult than the matching of individuals. This was for two main reasons. First there was an earthquake in 1733 which caused damage to property and rebuilding. Secondly, house names do not appear to be fixed. Houses owned by a particular set of occupants across several registers, may appear as Casa 5 in one, Casa 7 in another and Casa 8 in a further.

Because the names of both parents are given for most individuals in each register, we can make positive identifications of persons between registers in most cases. The form used for this task allows the names (or the start of a name plus a wildcard character ) to be entered and information on all of the persons with similar names already in the database to be retrieved. The displayed data includes the names of parents and spouse(s). From this information, a clear identification can almost always be made. If no match is found, or there is some uncertainty about identification, a new person record can be created. With linkage, it is better to err on the side of caution. These principles also apply to creating links to parents, as a new person may be sibling to others already known. In order to allow flexibility in linkage, the wildcard facility needs to be used judiciously. A new record is added to the 'register person' table for each individual appearing in each register. There is a compound key on person identifier and date. Names and place of origin are recorded each time to allow for minor variations; for instance a person may be Giovanni in one register and Giovanni Niccolò in another but the same individual as can be seen from his set of relatives.

So far, we have entered three registers - 1731, 1736 and 1754. From these it is becoming possible to build up several generations of bilateral links. As well as a link through person identifiers, each relationship is given a further identifier. This is not unique but is shared by a set of parents and all of their offspring. It is technically redundant data, but is useful in providing a quick method of locating sibling sets. The method was suggested by the model used by Antonio Ciuffreda and Gérard Delille for the Libro Magno di Manduria database at the École Française de Rome.

Another, and currently separate, section of the database holds information from the 1753 Catasto Onciario - a detailed taxation, property and population register made for the Neapolitan regime. This is currently being worked on by Ms. Oona Wesley-Smith, and will soon be linked to the 1754 State of Souls data. Links will be made to individuals, to houses and to locations (which are more detailed in the Onciario ). We will need to use a fairly advanced form of interface, such as the Windows/4GL system, to be able to search and compare the two sets of data side by side. So far only information on persons, residence, location and taxation has been entered from the Onciario , but the system is designed so that property details (land, houses, animals) and credit relations can be added at a later date. The Onciario provides data on wealth, occupation tenancy and debt relations. The method in which this document classifies households provides an interesting contrast to that used in the State of Souls registers.

The database has been designed to allow other types of information to be linked into the system. These include baptism, marriage and burial data. Such records will need to be linked to the existing person data and will also supplement it. We will use this information to create a further set of links about spiritual kinship as it is intended that a study of sponsor choice will be made in the future.

References

Bagg, J. 1991: 'Modelling kinship and residence from State of Soul registers - experiments with advanced database systems and presentation methods'. in H.J. Marker (ed) Proc. of the International AHC Conference 1991 (forthcoming).

Delille, G. 1988: Famiglia e proprietà nel Regno di Napoli, XV - XIX secolo.

Marino, J.A. 1988: Pastoral economics in the Kingdom of Naples.

Description of tables in the Ascoli database with example records

(Excluding the Catasto Onciario tables)

Location

2
Strada dalla Cattedrale
from Cattedrale to P. S.Antonio

lnum
id number for location

lname
short name of location

note
note about location (1 sentance)

House

4
casa 3
propria
2
2
1731

hnum
id number of house

hname
name of house eg. casa 1

type
type of ownership/tenancy: apiggione (rented), propria (owner-occupied), ecclesiastical , vacant , diruta (ruined), uncertain

folio
page number of register

lnum
id number of location

date
date of register

Register Person

9
4
1
1
Chiara
Angiolini
Ascoli
41
0
m
c
cr
x
1731

pid
id number of person

hnum
id number of house

hhdiv
division of house as in register. Numbered in sequence within house.

sub-div
sub-division of house in register. Numbered in sequence within division.

first name
to record variation between registers

last name
to record variation between registers

place of origin
to record variation between registers

age
age in years and months

marital status

m married, n unmarried, u uncertain

communicant

c communicant (if C on far left by name), else n

confirmed
put cr or - as in register else n

naturale

nat if illegitimate, else x, may be stated as naturale or be di padre ignoto

date
date of register

Person

9
Chiara
Angiolini
Ascoli
f

pid
id number of person

first name
may be two part eg. Gian Battista

last name
may be two part eg. di Marsico

place of origin
If not known and person is a child pA (perhaps Ascoli) is used otherwise nk .

sex

m male, f female, u uncertain

Relationships

9
S
8
511

pid
id number of person

type
type of relationship: M mother, F father, S spouse

rel Pid
id of related person

union number
number given to each set of parents and their offspring

House note

21
abitazione inferiore della stessa casa
1731

hnum
id number of house

note
note about house (1 line). Used to expand on name and to record public buildings next to house

date
date of register

Person note

118
canonico
1731

pid
id number of person

note
note about person (1 line). Use to mark occupations or titles, to note uncertainties and to record additional notes given in register

date
date of register

Extract from 1731 State of Souls register for Ascoli