Just wondering if anyone might have any information on Italy's "Municipal Bands". From my understanding almost every city and town had a local municipal band which played at civil ceremonies, weddings, funerals, visiting dignitaries & national holidays. The members of the band were supposedly chosen by the mayor, and this was a great honour.

Judging by a photo of my great grandfather in a uniform (which we originally thought was military) he was a member of one of these bands in the Meridionale areas of Italy (Umbria, Campania, Rome areas, Lazio, Abbruzzi, etc.)

Hoping someone might be able to give me more info on these bands - would love to narrow down exactly where in Italy my great grandfather was from!

Thanks

Does the foto have any markings of names or dates of any kind? Was it a post card foto? What does family oral history say about the origin of the family..what town, what province.

Familiarize yourself with contents of genealogy research at the following website
www.angelfire.com/ok3/...earch.html

=Peter=

There are no markings, names or dates on the photo. I have had a historian and uniformologist look at it though and they have confirmed that the uniform he is wearing is that of a "musicante" (not military as I had hoped as that would have made my searching much easier!) and that the style of uniform was worn between 1850-1900 (give or take) in the areas I mentioned before.

Thank you for the link - it's one I'm very familiar with. However, all of my letters and requests for information have been returned with negative results (archives, parishes & people with the same surname in various regions). LDS has proved negative also. No records with any further information has been found in my search for him in Scotland either (was hoping I might find something in the police archives as all immigrants had to register with the police during the war), valuation rolls, business listings, voters lists, passenger lists turned up nothing, all I have is his marriage certificate (no further info than what I already have) and death certificate (again, no dice).

There is *no* oral history about the origin of the family as my great grandfather passed while my grandfather and his siblings were very, very young and my great grandmother is no longer with us either. There are also no great aunts or uncles around. I only have suspicions that he was from the Lazio region (or thereabouts) as his father's occupation is listed as "farmer" on a Scottish alien card (again, no place of birth listed).

Have gone so far as to follow the lineage of people with the same or similar surnames who arrived in Scotland around the same time to see if there was a connection with nothing.

That's why I'm hoping to find more about these municipal bands to narrow down what area this uniform might have come from - right now the info I have is very, very broad.

It is very difficult for anyone to offer help or ideas when the only facts given are so vague.

Quote::

Military band

Why don't you post the photo?

Quote::

Marriage certificate and Death certificate

For 'who'? Can't you offer at least 'some' details?

Quote::

*no* oral history about the origin of the family as my great grandfather passed while my grandfather and his siblings were very, very young and my great grandmother is no longer with us either.

Research might need to follow 'their' history to glean other facts on origin!

All of us members on Italian Genealogy are, I'm sure, more than happy to help with searches, but it is nigh on impossible without a few more details than those offered... Somewhat like looking for a needle in a haystack when you don't even know where the haystack is!

elba wrote:

It is very difficult for anyone to offer help or ideas when the only facts given are so vague.

elba,

There is a lot more info in this earlier thread, including this image link.

Thanks Johnny...

Sorry obviously wasn't clear enough when speaking of the certificates - they were for my great grandfather (which is mentioned in my original post here...)

With regards to this specific thread, I'm not looking for more info on my grandfather per se, just on these municipal bands. Any general info anyone knows about them would be great!

johnnyonthespot wrote:

elba wrote: It is very difficult for anyone to offer help or ideas when the only facts given are so vague. elba, There is a lot more info in this earlier thread, including this image link.

Thank you for those links.

My unreserved apologies.... I did not connect the two threads I'm afraid
Mea culpa!

OK - now I've been given a nudge (thank you) here are three sites where you may find something, but I'm afraid they are in Italian.

But a picture is a picture....

Bari region
Bergamasc region
Trentino region
N.B. This one will take hours - you have to open every photo/picture....

That is fantastic elba! Thank you so much!! Exactly what I was looking for!

I swear I've searched for everything...banda della citta, banda musicale, musicante, banda municipale, town name + banda, you name it lol

It doesn't help that my Italian is super basic

Now that I have some better search terms to go by I've also found this website for anyone interested;

www.bandamusicale.it/bande/italia/

Thanks again for your help - I just might find what I'm looking for