Provincia di Ragusa

The civil fond comes from the tribunals of Ragusa and Modica and gathers the second copies of birth, marriage, death and citizenship registers — citizenship mostly recording changes of residence from 1866 — for the comuni of the present province, drawn up between 1820 and the twentieth century.

At present only documents from 1900 to 1911 are available. The archive says so plainly. The remainder of the fond is not accessible, so a nineteenth-century search here will not succeed at the moment however it is framed, and the comune's own office becomes the working custodian.

Levy records are in Liste di leva — Ufficio provinciale di Ragusa: males born between 1857 and 1949, resident in the mandamenti of Ragusa, Siracusa and Catania, referring to comuni of the present province. Those three mandamento names reflect the pre-1927 division of this territory and are not an error.

Matricular rolls for the comuni of the province of Ragusa are held at the Archivio di Stato di Siracusa. The levy list tells you a man was called; the matricular roll tells you what he did, and the two are ninety kilometres apart.

Digitisation is recorded as Parziale, consistent with only part of the fond being available.

Given all of this, a Ragusano search is often best begun at the comune rather than at the archive — which is the reverse of the usual advice and worth saying plainly.

The Libero Consorzio Comunale di Ragusa records that the province was instituted by royal decree on 2 January 1927, assembled from comuni that had belonged to Siracusa and to Catania. Civil status itself began, as everywhere in Sicily, in 1820, a year after Ferdinand I instituted it for the kingdom.

The territory's defining event is much older and it is the reason the province looks the way it does. The earthquake of 11 January 1693 destroyed the whole of the Val di Noto, killing perhaps sixty thousand people across south-eastern Sicily. Ragusa, Modica, Scicli, Comiso and Noto beyond the provincial line were rebuilt from the ground up over the following decades, in a unified late-baroque style that is now a World Heritage site.

Ragusa rebuilt twice over. The nobility rebuilt on the old site — Ragusa Ibla — while a newer town rose on the plateau above; the two were separate comuni until 1926 and are still distinct places, with distinct parishes. A record from before 1926 may be filed under either, and knowing which half of the city a family lived in matters.

Modica was the seat of a county — the Contea di Modica, one of the most powerful feudal states in Sicily, effectively autonomous for centuries — and its administrative records reflect a jurisdiction separate from the royal one.

The province's later economy was carob, stone, and from the twentieth century greenhouse agriculture along the coast at Vittoria and Scoglitti.

Check whether the event falls in 1900-1911. If it does, the archive is the place. If it does not, the comune is, and a letter to the comune will get further than a visit here.

For military research, expect two destinations: levy lists at Ragusa, matricular rolls at Siracusa. Plan for both rather than discovering the second after the first.

For a Ragusa family before 1926, establish whether they were in Ibla or Superiore — they were separate comuni with separate registers.

Nothing civil exists before 1820 anywhere in Sicily; earlier generations mean parish books, and in the Val di Noto many parish series begin only after 1693. Write ahead and say which eleven-year window you are hoping for.

Ragusa Ibla — the lower town rebuilt after 1693, separate from Ragusa Superiore until 1926.

Modica — seat of the Contea, its rock-cut quarters and its cold-process chocolate.

Scicli and Comiso — Val di Noto baroque, rebuilt after the earthquake.

Chiaramonte Gulfi — the hill town above the carob plateau.

The dry-stone country — the muri a secco dividing the plateau into small fields.

Vittoria and Scoglitti — the coastal strip and its twentieth-century greenhouse agriculture.