1830s Palermo - Illegitimate Child of Married Father Recognized and Baptized?

[williamsburger]

I came across this situation while researching my family, and wondered if anyone could shed light.

In essence: My 4x great-grandfather, Don Salvatore Finaltea, married his first wife, Donna Maria Antonia Vinci, in Palermo in 1815, at the church of Sant'Ippolito Martire. As far as I can tell, the couple was childless.

In 1831, my great-great-great grandfather, Ferdinando Finaltea, was born. His birth certificate lists his parents as Don Salvatore Finaltea, age 43, and one Emilia Perricone, age 21, and says that he was born in his father's house ("nella casa di esso Signor Finaltea"). The birth certificate of his sister Rosalia, born two years later, is even more explicit — she was born to Salvatore and Emilia, "in the house of said Finaltea and Perricone." (According to their birth records, both infants were baptized at Sant'Ippolito Martire shortly after birth, but I’ve only been able to find Ferdinando’s baptism in the church’s records on Family Search.)

As far as I can tell, though, Don Salvatore's first wife was **still alive** and living at the same residence on Via Sangue de Cristo when both children were born! Donna Maria Antonia didn't die until March 1834, six months after Rosalia’s birth. Here's her death certificate from antenati (item #109). That May, Don Salvatore and Emilia Perricone married, making Emilia (my 4x ggma) his second wife. (Here are pages two and three of their marriage record.) Maria Antonia’s death record was one of the items contained in their processetti documents folder, along with the death record of Emilia’s father, which seems to suggest that he lived at via Sangue di Cristo as well.

I’m very curious to know more about this situation, as it seems quite unusual to me. I’ve never come across a child born out of wedlock at this time in Italy where the parents were so openly recognized at birth, particularly since the father was clearly married to someone else. Also, why were Emilia and her father possibly living in the Finaltea home — could they have been servants? (There’s no occupation listed on her father’s death record, which I linked to above.)

I know that usage of the “Don” honorific doesn’t automatically signify noble status, but could there be a class explanation for why Salvatore was so willing to openly acknowledge these children? Or is this a fairly common scenario that I’ve just never run across before?

I apologize for all the questions — very curious for any insight anyone can provide! Thank you in advance.

[suanj]

Yes, the "DON" is not a noble title, but a title of Spanish origin which in southern Italy meant respect for the wealth of the person, or for culture, or political commitment. In short, he was not an ordinary person considering that at the time they were all poor and illiterate.

Regarding the story that Don Salvatore had children with Emilia, much younger than his wife, I remember that in the past in southern Italy, but I believe also in the north, certain influential characters had a madame, that is a woman of pleasure with whom they do sex. This happened when due to political or property issues, or social expediency, they were forced to marry a woman they didn't love. If then the woman did not even procreate, the children were in any case necessary to allocate the inheritance, and therefore they procreated with the constant lover they kept at home and that the wife was forced to put up with, because the fact of being sterile, or ugly, or otherwise, deprived her of conjugal rights before her husband. And at the time, separating legally was a shame, a personal failure, one was marginalized. Especially in Sicily..

Practically with his legitimate wife they were separated although not legally and married life was entirely with Emilia. The parish priest was aware of this situation and accepted the situation, because in any case he had to baptize the child born of an adulterous relationship, and probably did not dare to reproach because Don Salvatore had influential friends. His profession was clerkship and therefore he could read and write. It was a big thing to respect .
The fact that Emilia's father lived with them or in the same street seems correct. Don Salvatore must have fallen in love with Emilia and asked her to have children by her. He must have been an influential person to fear, because Emilia's father accepted the situation, which usually at the time resulted in the crime of someone who dishonored a young woman. A married man could not do what Don Salvatore did, and for his father it was lawful to kill anyone who dishonored a daughter. It was called an honor killing and carried a light penalty. On a moral level this situation was shameful but tolerated. Don Salvatore probably didn't accept refusals from anyone. The fact that he has legitimized his children and that there is no mention of the adulterous situation on their birth record, makes it clear that everyone knew it and kept silent it, why? Maybe he had some powerful godfathers in the family.
Regards,
suanj

[williamsburger]

Suanj,

I can't think you enough for this thoughtful, detailed response to my forum post. A decade ago, when I was first digging into my family's history with the intent of pursuing my dual citizenship, I remember how knowledgeable and helpful you were throughout that process. And now once again, you've helped me here by that the circumstances surrounding the birth of Don Salvatore and Emilia's two oldest children were deeply unusual and were only possible due to him having some degree of influence. (I kept thinking about the film Divorzio all'italiana — a comedy, I know, but it seems to capture how people would have felt about such a relationship at the time!)

Your comment about the parish priest being pressured to accept the situation caused me to try again to find evidence of the baptism of Don Salvatore and Emilia's daughter, Rosalia. Somehow, I'd missed it in my initial search of the Sant'Ippolito Martire, but I eventually found the baptismal record here. The notation in the baptismal index also contains this fascinating notation: "vide chirographum municipalitatis." I imagine this refers to some kind of documentation about the circumstances of the child's birth. Do you have any idea what this document might be, or how I could find a copy of it?

Thank you again!

[suanj]

Frankly, this is the first time I've seen such an annotation. I do not know what that means. But it is certain that the parish priest had the duty to baptize the child. On some baptism records they wrote that the spouses were legitimate spouses. Since the note says "See City Stamp" a stamp should be on the baptismal record, but I don't think it's an authorization to baptize, because no one is allowed to have that authority, but the Church baptizes anyone who comes to be baptized or to baptize a own child. The priest baptize a child even if not born from a no legally married couple. I repeat, I don't know what the parish priest meant by highlighting that note. But is strange.

The couple Salvatore and Emilia lived in a flagrant state of adultery and certainly the legitimate wife suffered a lot from it. But it seemed that Salvatore had such an influence that no one murmur about it. As they say in southern Italy "the adultery of the rich are of dried figs, the adulteries of the poor are of nuts" in the sense that if you shake dried figs in a bowl they make no noise, that is clamor, and no one murmur, while instead if you do same with nuts noise is heard, i.e. clamor.