Record Atlas
7 eras · 1296–2026 · 10 places

South coast of Sicily — Pozzallo, Scicli, Pachino and Niscemi

Pozzallo, Scicli, Ispica, Pachino, Santa Croce Camerina, Niscemi. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1296–1479 Kingdom of Sicily — County of Modica no registers survive

Frederick III conceded the County of Modica to Manfredi I Chiaramonte on 25 March 1296; it was re-created in 1392 for Bernat IV de Cabrera after Andrea Chiaramonte was beheaded on 1 July 1392. The Compromise of Caspe (1412) added Sicily permanently to the Crown of Aragon. The towns named for the county under the Cabreras include Scicli, Spaccaforno (today's Ispica) and the port of Pozzallo, but not Niscemi or Pachino.
1479–1713 Spanish Sicily — County of Modica under the Enríquez-Cabrera Archivio di Stato di Ragusa · Archivio di Stato di Siracusa · FamilySearch

Spanish domination dates from 1479; the Enríquez-Cabrera counts held Modica from 1530. The 1693 earthquake killed over 60,000 people in Sicily and was followed by Late Baroque rebuilding in the Val di Noto.
1713–1720 Kingdom of Sicily under the House of Savoy Archivio di Stato di Palermo · FamilySearch

The Treaty of Utrecht gave Sicily to the House of Savoy in 1713.
1720–1735 Kingdom of Sicily under Austria Archivio di Stato di Palermo · FamilySearch

Savoy exchanged Sicily for Sardinia in 1720 (Treaty of The Hague) and Austria ruled until 1735.
1735–1816 Bourbon Kingdom of Sicily Archivio di Stato di Ragusa · Archivio di Stato di Siracusa · Archivio di Stato di Caltanissetta · FamilySearch

Britain occupied the island from 1806 to 1814 and the Sicilian Constitution of 1812 is linked to the end of feudalism; the County of Modica is dated 1296 to 1812.
1816–1861 Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Archivio di Stato di Ragusa · Archivio di Stato di Siracusa · Archivio di Stato di Siracusa — sezione di noto · Archivio di Stato di Caltanissetta · Antenati · FamilySearch

Ferdinand merged Sicily with Naples in 1816. Civil registration in Sicily began in 1820 in a format almost identical to the Napoleonic registers.
1861–2026 Kingdom and Republic of Italy Archivio di Stato di Ragusa · Archivio di Stato di Siracusa · Archivio di Stato di Caltanissetta · Antenati · FamilySearch

The Two Sicilies became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861; many state-archive civil registers are on Antenati.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1296–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

10 places on this ground

258 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 198 more.

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