Italian Ancestor Married Twice

[jamesws]

Hello,

I am in the process of applying for Italian citizenship by jure sanguinis through the Italian consulate in Melbourne, Australia. My great grandfather was an Italian citizen and did not naturalise in Australia until after the birth of my grandfather.

I had my first appointment yesterday and they have put my application put 'on hold' for now because of an issue with one document that I need to resolve. They did however note from my great grandfather's Italian birth certificate that he left a wife in Italy without a divorce, before starting a family in Australia with my great grandmother.

The consulate was reluctant to give me much information, or even let me speak to ask questions (!), they told me that I will have to include the marriage certificate for both the Italian wife (not my blood relative) and the Australian wife (my blood relative), but they said that the fact that my great grandfather had committed bigamy could cause issues for my application.

Has anyone else encountered a similar situation, and did it cause any issues for the application?

Thank you for your help,
James

[mjhruska1]

Hello James,

I am new to these forums and I may not be able to actually help you with your problem but I do believe that that has happened before in my own Italian Genealogy. My GG granduncle Nicola married in Italy then came over with his wife before things got rocky and she went back to the states without a divorce from him and then a few years later, he married his second wife who was with him for about 15 years. Ten years later, he married again only mentioning his second wife under previous marriages.

Now that I am writing this, I am wondering if you might want to look into common law marriage laws from that time period to see if that could help you as then, there may not be any official documentation on either end.