Thursday,
22 February
2024
2:00 PM |
Researcher: Angelo Coniglio
Patron: Thomas F.
Searching
records from Delia in Caltanissetta province, Sicilia .
Found: several records, including the 1885 birth
record of his great grandfather Vincenzo
Fasciana, the 1873 birth record of Vincenzo's
brother Gaetano, and the 1889 record of death of
their father Francesco and the 1917 death of
their mother Crocifissa Iannello. |
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(Click images to enlarge) |
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The birth records above state that the children were
born to Francesco Fasciana through his unwed union with
an unmarried, unrelated woman. Between 1861
and 1925, after the 'unification' of Italy subsumed the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and caused a schism between
church and state, civil authorities did not recognize
church marriages as legal. Thus, even if a couple
was married in church, but not in a civil ceremony, they
were called 'unwed' in civil records.
In such cases, when children were born to a
couple, the 'unwed' mother was given the option of being
named or not in her child's birth record. Being
named meant being officially documented as an unwed
mother, considered shameful by the mores of the time.
However some bold women chose to be identified, and even
to appear at the registration of their children, as
Vincenzo's mother Crocifissa Iannello did.
Further research located the index of church marriages
which showed that Franciscus and Crucifixe
(Latin names) had had their marriage recorded on page
203 of the church register, and record number 30 on that
page shows that they were married on 10 July 1869. |
