As you’re reading records from Canischio, some will be written in Italian and some will be in Latin. You can see local influences on both languages. Canischio is within the area where Piedmontese is spoken. John is typically spelled “Giovanni” in Italian. But throughout the 1800s in Canischio, the name is almost always spelled “Gioanni” without the “v.” Additionally, some personal and family names clearly reflect French and German roots. It is not uncommon to see “Girot” and “Girotto” used interchangeably over the years to refer to the same family. Finally, names are typically Latinized in church records. So Carlo will be Carlus or Carlii and Giuseppe will be Joseph or Josephii. Endings vary depending on the grammar of the sentence.

Most of the vocabulary in the records is similar to modern Italian. You will generally be successful using a tool like Google Translate to decipher unfamiliar phrases. Also, do not be surprised if the words in the records are not spelled exactly as you see them below. Latin words have different endings to reflect grammatical constructions. Pay close attention to the word stems, and you’ll usually be able to understand the meaning.

The charts below are a helpful reference for translating dates: