Avellino and Venafro

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demari18
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Avellino and Venafro

Post by demari18 »

Hello, I am researching my husband's family. He knew that they came from Marzano Appio and we have traveled there twice. I have been looking through Antenati records and found a death record for a child of my husband's 2x's great grandparents. With help from Italiangenelogy the record was translated and I discovered that the 2x's great grandfather was born in Venafro and the 2x's great grandmother was born in Avellino. These 2x's great grandparents were born about 1805. How is that people married from 2 places over an hour away? Thank you. DeMari
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suanj
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Re: Avellino and Venafro

Post by suanj »

It was no a problem.. the marriages was arranged by a go-between .. matchmaker... and at most the groom knew and met the bride before the wedding in three or 4 meetings, then they moved on to the wedding. They usually occurred within a year of acquaintance. As far as I know, the young man instructed a matchmaker to find a right wife and explained the physical and character characteristics he wanted the girl to have. And the dowry and the type of family, that is, decent people. He also asked if there were hereditary defects.
It functioned much like a modern marriage agency. If the matchmaker had any photograph or portrait he would show it to the young man, otherwise he would explain himself in words. Normally going to get married far away meant that no young woman in the place was to her liking or already engaged to another man.
If among those of the matchmaker there was one young woman that he liked, having seen her only in photos then he would show it to him in person, but without meeting, perhaps from a distance .. Clearly she knew about him and had agreed to be seen and he knew about her. The portraits of the young women were given by the fathers of the girls who wanted to marry their daughters and who did not find men to like for one reason or another. If everything was ok, the official meeting was held, which was called "the entrance" or the entrance of the future son-in-law and parents, and maybe an uncle, the grandparents, in the house of the future father-in-law. There was either a lunch offered or just homemade biscuits and liqueur, and the girl's whole family was to receive it. Grandparents and uncles. If the young woman's father remained happy of young man, having analyzed, the work he did, what intentions he had with his daughter, he saw the character, and talked to the father of the groom and they clarified who their ancestors were, the marriage was arranged.. Marriages with children of unsavory persons were avoided. Then the consu-in-laws explained about the timing of the wedding, where the spouses went to live, and how they divided the wedding costs and the first one or two years who would help it, because after the marriage the spouses were helped financially if possible.
At the end of the meeting, which was not an engagement meeting, but was the "entrance", the girl's father advised himself with the other relatives, evaluated the impressions and obviously asked his daughter if he liked the young man and the family. If everything is ok, the engagement party was scheduled about a month away, and the guests were there and the wedding date was announced. While the man was preparing the new house, the woman exhibited the trousseau, in an open day, where everyone could enter the house and see the wedding trousseau. And the wedding always took place in the bride's place of residence. The man had to choose the month of the date, and the woman the day, for obvious reasons of menstruation.
This is how marriages happened at the time. If a man from Venafro married a woman from Avellino it was not a rare case, because he was looking for a woman he liked more than those in Venafro.
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suanj
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demari18
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Re: Avellino and Venafro

Post by demari18 »

Thank you suanj, So much information to help me reach a better understanding of life in Italy at the time I am researching! Again Thank you! DeMari
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Re: Avellino and Venafro

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Re: Avellino and Venafro

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