During the Napoleonic Wars, France controlled most of modern-day Italy for a brief time (1805-1814): the Kingdom of Naples, the Papal States, Piemonte, and Veneto and Lombardia. Napoleon instituted a civil registration record system (Stato Civile) to record all births, deaths, marriages, and other miscellaneous actions involving the population. When Napoleon abdicated his holdings in 1814 and the various Italian lands reverted to their previous rulers, most regions ceased using Stato Civile registration. But in the Kingdom of Naples (which became the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), registration continued. The island of Sicily, which was never under Napoleon's control, began using the registration system in 1820. After Italian unification in 1866, Stato Civile registration again was used across all of Italy.
The Modugno Stato Civile records can be broken into three different eras:
Two copies of each birth, marriage, and death record were created. One remained in the Comune and the other was sent to the district court (Tribunale). Once copies held at the Tribunale are 75 years old, they are transferred to the state archives. It is these state archive copies (in this case, the State Archive of Bari) that have been microfilmed by the LDS church and now made available for online research.
Before 1866, certain types of events were captured in the Atti Diversi (literally, "diverse acts"). These included:
The Modugno Stato Civile records can be broken into three different eras:
- Stato Civile Napoleonico, which includes registers from the brief period covering Napoleon's rule over the Kingdom of Naples. In Modugno these records cover the years 1809-1815.
- Stato Civile della Restaurazione, which includes registers from the restoration period, after the defeat of Napoleon when the Bourbon King Ferdinando reclaimed the thrones of Sicily and Naples (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies). These records in Modugno cover the years 1816-1860.
- Stato Civile Italiano, which includes registers from the unification period and the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy. Records from Modugno are available from 1861-1945.
Two copies of each birth, marriage, and death record were created. One remained in the Comune and the other was sent to the district court (Tribunale). Once copies held at the Tribunale are 75 years old, they are transferred to the state archives. It is these state archive copies (in this case, the State Archive of Bari) that have been microfilmed by the LDS church and now made available for online research.
Before 1866, certain types of events were captured in the Atti Diversi (literally, "diverse acts"). These included:
- Still births (morti nati)
- Births of foundlings (abandoned babies) - note that in Modugno prior to 1840 foundling births were recorded in the regular birth records
- Recognition of a foundling by a parent (riconoscimenti)
- Adoptions (adozioni) - note that adoptions of children were not at all common in Italy until the middle of the 20th century. Foundlings were taken in by foster families who might raise them until adulthood, but the child was still legally the child of unknown parents. Adoption was typically a contract between consenting adults.
- Deaths of a resident in occurring another town (morti fuori domicilio)
- Corrections to previous records (rettificazioni)