Landowners

[gae]

The story that I have often heard from family members is one where my paternal grandfather's parents and all the children worked as farmers for someone else. It sounds very much like a feudal system. Is there a way to find out who landowners were in the 1800s in Friuli? Is this story likely?
Thank you
Evy

[MarcuccioV]

The story that I have often heard from family members is one where my paternal grandfather's parents and all the children worked as farmers for someone else. It sounds very much like a feudal system. Is there a way to find out who landowners were in the 1800s in Friuli? Is this story likely?
Thank you
Evy

If you can locate a "catasto" (land registry) for Fruili, that would go a long way to answering your question. Most areas of Italy in the 1800's used this system, where a scant few were landowners who employed the "contadini" (peasant farmers) to work their land, in a sort-of sharecropper fashion. This applied to anyone not possessing a trade of some sort.

Good luck in your research.

[gae]

Thanks Mark.
Evy