Double Trouble

[darkerhorse]

Around the same time period in the same town in Sicily, I have a man married to a woman with a son born c.1741, and another man with the name (given name and surname) married to a woman with a different name with a son of the same name born c.1747. Both sons survived to old age and I have their death records, indicating that their mothers are different women.

As for the fathers, which scenario do you think is more likely?

The two fathers are different men.

The two fathers are the same man whose first wife died and he remarried.

Would a man give a son from a second marriage the same name as a son from his first marriage given that his first son is still alive?

There are references to the "two" fathers and two mothers in records of their children, but no records exist for them per se. Any thoughts on how to investigate this further, in the absence of direct records for the parents?

[mmogno]

Have you searched for marriage certificates?

[darkerhorse]

The two couples (and their children) were all married well before civil records started and, to my knowledge, no church records exist for that time period either.

[darkerhorse]

Church records are said to have been destroyed in earthquakes, fires, etc. over the years.

[darkerhorse]

In addition, the first son had a son who married the daughter of the second son. It was a second marriage for both, and produced two children (who never married or had children of their own).

This means, for the two fathers to be the same person, he would have had to remarry, give the same name to sons from each wife, and have one of his grandsons marry one of his granddaughters. I guess they would have been half-first cousins.

How probable is that, compared to the two fathers just being different persons with the same name with sons of the same name?

Relevant records aren't available so I'm trying to use logic and probability instead.