The Erice Archives

NEW: 206 Volumes Photographed!

A further 12,600 images from 61 volumes have recently been added, bringing the total number of photographed volumes to 206, with more than 29,000 images available online.
Click here for more details.

Search the Wedding Records

A recently-added feature now allows many Wedding records to be searched by date and name.
Click here to see how.

The Archives

The city of Erice, in western Sicily, was known as 'Monte San Giuliano' until the year 1934. This site contains photographic images taken from the historical archives of its main parishes. 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 and are available online.

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..

Preservation

The decision to photograph the volumes was taken due to the precarious state of conservation of some of the original documents. This will allow online consultancy of their records and avoid inadvertently damaging the originals. The intent is to photograph all 'Quinque Libri' volumes within the next period.

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How to View the Data

The photographed records from the archives are copyrighted, and to access them online, it is first necessary to register on the site. A full name, user name, password and e-mail address must be provided. The system will then send an e-mail to the user with a link to "activate" his/her account. When registering, the user explicitly accepts the terms of use of the site, which specify that any images that are viewed cannot be used for commercial purposes. They are only for personal use.

After activating the account, the user can login to the archives and search using "type" of record (e.g. baptism, wedding, death, etc), the "church" involved (e.g. Matrice, San Antonio, San Cataldo, San Giuliano, etc), the "date" and the number of the "volume" (if known). Any combination of these parameters can be used. It is also possible to not specify anything and simply to scroll through the list describing the volumes.

206 volumes have been completely photographed, resulting in some 28,400 images, all of which can be viewed. To see which volumes have been photographed, login, then press the "All Photos" button. After searching, a summary of available photos will be shown in a table on the right-hand side of the screen. Links are provided to a selection of photos within the volume. To see a photo, press the yellow "Show Photos" button.

Click here for more details.