Challenges in Constructing Large-Scale Parish Microdata: The Bologna and Its Suburb Parish Register Database, 17th-19th Centuries

Michail Raftakis, Department of Statistical Sciences - University of Bologna
Nicola Barban, University of Bologna
Rosella Rettaroli, Università di Bologna

The paper discusses the Bologna and its Suburb Parish Register Database, a project aimed at constructing an extensive Italian dataset of parish registers. Since the mid-sixteenth century, the religious authority in Italy has mandated the maintenance of birth, death, and marriage registers in every parish. While these rules were particularly adhered to in the Papal State, various other Italian States also utilized these registers for administrative purposes. Later, the Status Animarum, an annual nominative population and household register, was added to the list. For nearly three centuries, a wealth of data has been available for many parishes in Bologna and its suburbs, meticulously preserved in microfilm format collected by Athos Bellettini. However, despite this preservation effort, the data remains significantly underused. Utilizing these registers allows us to explore individual and household behaviors, enabling longitudinal analyses by reconstructing individual and family life histories mainly on an annual basis. This facilitates the calculation of rates and other demographic measures based on the population at risk for each specific event, as well as the examination of household structure, its evolution, and its impact on demographic behaviors. Furthermore, on the local scale, it enables the exploration of spatial and social mobility at both the individual and family levels. Beyond outlining the project’s general aims, this paper addresses the challenges encountered throughout the workflow from digitization to database development, including the heterogeneous nature of source materials, such as handwriting and the transition from Latin to Italian. It also discusses automatic transcription techniques such as OCR and HTR. Ultimately, the goal is to perform linkages of individuals across successive Status Animarum and demographic events in parish registers (baptisms, marriages, and burials), and we will discuss automatic record linkage techniques that will be implemented in the next steps of the project.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 58. New Historical Data Reconstructions