Using Mother's Surname

[brogie62]

I have a marriage record from the year 1832 in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily. The groom is Vincenzo Smriglio and the bride is Concetta Caligiore. The brides parents are given as Paolo Caligiore and the late Rosa Cavaleri. Her parents are written the same in the Allegati in the notification and other forms as well as in her baptism record extract.

However, in the Allegati there is a death record extract for the mother which gives her name as Rosa Musso, wife of Paolo Calagiore, daughter of the late Paolo (presumed Musso) and Anna Cavaleri. This is confirmed from the original death record which was recorded in neighboring Casssaro.

This is the first instance I have seen of someone using the mother's surname. How common was this?

Thanks,
Kevin

[brogie62]

That town is Cassaro. Too many s’s.

[carubia]

In Sicily, or at least parts of the island, such as Agrigento province, it was a very common practice. It was especially common to see this for the mother's name in a death or marriage record. Note that this was almost exclusively for women, that is, a woman would be referred to by her mother's surname, but a man would generally not be (except if his parents were unmarried at the time of his birth, of course). It was also common for a woman to use a combination of her mother's and father's surnames in either order. This practice slowly died out during the 19th c., but I have seen a few cases of it still being done around the turn of the 20th c.

There were 2 ways that someone could have a double surname. One was was if the name was a combination of the parents' surnames, and this was usually only for one generation, and the other was if the family had a double surname that was passed down from generation to generation. The latter type of double surname may have originated as the former type, and you see many death records where it seems that there was some confusion as to which type of double surname the deceased had. Occasionally you'll see someone using a grandmother's surname, because that was the surname her mother used.

[brogie62]

Thanks Carubia. That certainly adds a potential complication that one needs to keep aware of when researching in southern Sicily.

Kevin

[Anizio]

I have seen many instances of records of people who are listed with their mother's surname. Never the baptism.

In my experience it tends to be the same circumstance that leads to the presence of "alias" "detto" or "vulgo" in records where people have two surnames. More more prevalent pre-1800s.

In fact I have multiple cases in my own family tree alone where a father's surname is lost and all descendants just adopt the mother's surname. Although usually there is a period where both the father and mother's surname is used interchangeably until one is dropped.

We have to always remember not to use 2017 glasses to look at the past. The "rules" when it comes to names were different.

[brogie62]

I have seen many instances of records of people who are listed with their mother's surname. Never the baptism.

Anizio, this was in the bride’s [Concetta Caligiore] baptism extract in the allegati where her mother was given with her mother’s surname. It was not the baptism of her mother [Rosa Cavaleri].

[Anizio]

I have seen many instances of records of people who are listed with their mother's surname. Never the baptism.

Anizio, this was in the bride’s [Concetta Caligiore] baptism extract in the allegati where her mother was given with her mother’s surname. It was not the baptism of her mother [Rosa Cavaleri].

Yes I understand that.

Let me repeat myself.

I have seen many instances of records of woman who are listed with their mother's surname. I have never seen this happen where a woman has her mother's surname on the registry of her child's baptism. But just because I have not seen it, does not make it not possible. It does seem to happen and it has given me a few headaches in the past.

[carubia]

I've seen that many times on a civil birth record (where the mother's surname is her mother's name), but it is not as common as on marriage and death records. However, I don't recall seeing it on a baptismal record either. Then again, I haven't looked at as many baptismal records as I have birth records, and I'm so used to seeing the use of the mother's surname it wouldn't even be notable. I have seen it on church marriage records, too.