Hi Joey
A few observations from what I’ve learned in doing genealogy research in the south of Italy for the last 25 years.
As far as the witnesses being the father, I can’t say, but I would guess that they were just a couple of men that the midwife knew.
It’s possible that the father might have been the priest (it happened more times that you’d think) or a high ranking official. The law was that unless the couple was married, the father’s name was not given to the child. Since she kept the baby, it’s possible that everyone knew who the father was.
That’s odd that Giuseppe’s wife listed her uncle as her father. I would guess that her father passed away and then her mother married her deceased husband’s brother, which was expected if a brother was “available”. So, her uncle would become her father. Do you have Mary Rose’s parents’ marriage record – can you post it here?
As far as Giuseppe’s father also being a Giuseppe. I don’t know when the law was enacted, or if it applied to all of Italy, but I’ve learned that fathers could not name sons after themselves.
Did Giuseppe marry in Marsicovetere? If he did, he would have had to produce a birth record, and the marriage record would have reflected that he was of “unnamed” father. If he married outside Italy, then the rules were not so strict, and people made up information just to make the process move more smoothly.
These are just some observations from years of research. Sorry I can’t be any more helpful.
Mary
