Sunday 27 August 2017

Questions of legitimacy

In a previous post, the first one about Civil Registrations [1815-1871], I wrote

"Sometimes in the notes column you'll find interesting speculations or reports about the baby's paternity, especially when he/she was illegitimate, or when the dates of marriage of the parents were too close to the birth."

and having found a couple of examples of this I decided it was an interesting thing to post.

The first example is from the parish of San Marco in Pordenone. (left and right parts)
Parrocchia di San Marco in Pordenone, Stato civile 1815-1871, anno 1816, record 76, Archivio Storico Diocesano di Concordia-Pordenone

It's the 24th of November and they've baptised a baby girl (Maria Teresa Cecilia Pischiutta) born on the previous day. Her parents Maria Allegretti and Alessandro Pischiutta had married just 4 days before (20th of November) and so in the column for "Notes" this was written:

"Alessandro Pischiutta [the father] has declared, in the presence of myself the priest, the godfather and the aforementioned witnesses, that he is the father of the said baby girl, who was legitimised by the marriage on [blank]." Signatures of priest and witnesses.

There are a few interesting things about this document:
1. It looks like the word "legitimate" in the left part, near the baby name, has been written by a different hand and in a different moment (the ink looks darker).
2. in the notes space the priest forgot to write the marriage date down, why? it was already on the document... it's in the first column of part 2. [and I happen to have the marriage document, the 20th of November 1816 is indeed correct]
3. from the wording of that note, I would have expected the marriage to have taken place after the birth, and also because "who was legitimised by the marriage" definitely makes me think she was not legitimate when she was born...
It's a bit weird, but maybe the priest used that wording just because the ceremonies (marriage and birth) happened in such a short time that he felt he needed to question the legitimacy as if the baby was born to unmarried parents.

The second case is more straightforward, from the parish of Cordovado:
Parrocchia di Cordovado, Stato civile 1815-1871, anno 1848, record 5, Archivio Storico Diocesano di Concordia-Pordenone

We have a baby, Domenico Pippo, born in February 1848 while his parents (Maria Martin and Gio Batta Pippo) were married in November 1847, and it being just a 3 months gap the priest feels the need to write this in the notes column:

"Pippo Gio Batta [father] declares, in the presence of the two undersigned witnesses [and the priest], that he recognises as his own son the aforementioned Domenico Pippo, [with] witnesses Antonio Civran and Pietro Marzin". And signatures.

I hope it was interesting! If I find more (different) examples of what can be found in the notes I'll post it.

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