The Defranceschi Archive
Venice · Zadar · Split · Omiš · Imotski · six days

The Venice and Dalmatia walk

The oldest and best-documented line, and the one whose evidence is in state archives rather than churchyards. Less walking, more reading rooms.

This line goes back furthest — Zadar in 1359, Omiš in 1584 — and it is the one where the family were cittadini originari of the Republic, soldiers and salt officials rather than weavers. Its records are therefore secular: notarial acts, land grants, military pay, and the Rammentatore zaratino.

Two warnings. First, this is an archive trip, not a hike: book everything. Second, this line is the one the retired 2018 GEDCOM spliced onto David's own — so treat every join with suspicion, and read the Corrections page before you go.

Where to stay

Split for days three to six; Venice and Zadar are separate legs

Venice and Zadar are best done as their own two-day leg by ferry or road. Split then serves Omiš (30 minutes), Imotski (an hour and a half) and the Split archive itself.

Getting there · when to go

Venice → Zadar by ferry seasonally, otherwise the coast road through Trieste and Rijeka. Split has the airport and the state archive.

April–May or October. The Dalmatian archives close or shorten in August, and Imotski in high summer is punishing.

The itinerary

  1. 1

    Venice: the printers, the Chancellor, and the citizen registers

    Venice · a full day

    Two different families of the name sit here, and the archive's own portraits page exists to keep them apart. Do not conflate them on the ground.

    1. 1a

      Archivio di Stato di Venezia

      Book ahead

      For the cittadini originari registers, which is the status this line claims. Also the Avogaria di Comun for proofs of citizenship.

      At the doorCerco la famiglia de Franceschi / Franceschi fra i cittadini originari, e le prove di cittadinanza presso l'Avogaria di Comun.

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 1b

      Museo Correr

      Publicly visible

      Francesco de' Franceschi's Martyrdom of St Mamas is here — the Venetian painter, active 1443–1468, and not this family. Worth seeing precisely so the distinction stays real.

      What this archive already holds →

    3. 1c

      Biblioteca Marciana

      Book ahead

      For Domenico de' Franceschi, the printer who issued Palladio's I quattro libri in 1570, and Francesco Franceschi, d. c.1599. Namesakes, documented as such.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • Any cittadini originari entry for the name, photographed with its shelfmark
    • The Correr Martyrdom, and its label
  2. 2

    Zadar: 1359, and a palace on Široka ulica

    Zadar · a full day

    The earliest date this line holds, and a building this archive cites from a footnote it has never read.

    1. 2a

      Široka ulica — the Ferro-Grisogono-Franceschi palace

      Publicly visible

      This archive names this house from «Famiglia Franceschi», Il Rammentatore zaratino, 1859, p. 30 — a page nobody here has seen. Photograph the façade, any arms, and any date.

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 2b

      Znanstvena knjižnica Zadar

      Book ahead

      Get page 30 of the 1859 Rammentatore. It is errand 6 on this archive's list and it can be done in an afternoon here.

      At the doorMolim uvid u Il Rammentatore zaratino, 1859., str. 30 — natuknica «Famiglia Franceschi». Molim i presliku naslovnice.

    3. 2c

      Državni arhiv u Zadru

      Book ahead

      For the 1359 grant of «nobiles regni Croacie» by Louis I, and for Venetian-period notarial acts.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • The palace, whole façade and any coat of arms
    • Rammentatore p. 30 and the title page
    • Any Franceschi arms in the Zadar archive's heraldic material
  3. 3

    Split: the cathedral choir, and a canon of Candia

    Split · a full day

    The record that ties the Cretan family to Dalmatia, and it is under the floor of the cathedral.

    1. 3a

      Split cathedral — the canons' vault

      Ask permission

      Don Nicolò de Franceschi, «Can.co di S. Vito di Candia», died aged about ninety and was buried in the choir, in the canons' vault, in 1716. That is four years before the Seget purchase of 1720 and it is the first document — not tradition — linking Cretan De Franceschi to Dalmatia.

      At the doorPostoji li popis pokopanih u kanoničkoj grobnici u koru katedrale, i može li se pogledati?

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 3b

      Državni arhiv u Splitu

      Book ahead

      Notarial and land records for Omiš and Imotski, and the Napoleonic decree that stripped the particle — which is why the descendants of a count are called Franceschi.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • The choir and any floor slabs or vault plaques in the cathedral
    • Any Franceschi name in the cathedral's own records
  4. 4

    Omiš: a house founded on 18 June 1584

    Omiš · a full day

    The most precisely dated event in this line, and the town where the family were salt officials.

    1. 4a

      The old town of Omiš

      Publicly visible

      «Francesco the Venetian lays the foundations of his house on 18 June 1584.» Find the quarter, photograph what stands, and ask the town museum which building the tradition attaches to.

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 4b

      Omiš parish and cemetery

      Publicly visible

      This archive holds seven Omiš households and a chart going back to a Francesco, d. 1512, saliera di porto di Zara. Nothing photographed.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • Whatever the town identifies as the 1584 house
    • Every Franceschi stone in the Omiš cemetery
    • Any salt-office or harbour inscription
  5. 5

    Imotski and the Vrljika mills

    Imotski → Perinuša → Opačac · about 25 km

    1717: Zuane takes the town and is paid in ruined land. The mills are the payment, and they were family property into living memory.

    1. 5a

      Imotski — the fortress and the town

      Publicly visible

      Taken from the Ottomans in 1717. The grant of ruined land on the Vrljika is what founded this branch's wealth.

      What this archive already holds →

    2. 5b

      Perinuša and Opačac

      Publicly visible

      Six wheels, then eleven, then fourteen. The spring at Opačac is the head of the river. Ask locally who the mills belonged to — this is within living memory and the answer will not be in an archive.

    Photograph these — we do not have them
    • The mill sites at Perinuša, and any surviving stonework
    • Opačac spring
    • The fortress and the town from the Vrljika side
  6. 6

    A day in reserve, for whichever door opened

    Split or Zadar

    Deliberately unplanned. On a trip this archive-heavy, one of days one to five will produce a reference that needs a second visit, and the whole point of coming is to follow it.

    4 doors, and what to say at them

    The wording is there to be read off a phone. It is plain and it is polite. Check the address and the opening hours on each institution\u2019s own site before you go.

    WhoHowWhat to sayWhat it gets you
    Archivio di Stato di Venezia Reading-room card required; apply online in advance. Cerco la famiglia de Franceschi fra i cittadini originari e le prove di cittadinanza presso l'Avogaria di Comun. The status this line claims, tested against the Republic's own registers.
    Znanstvena knjižnica Zadar Walk-in, but email ahead for a 19th-century periodical. Molim uvid u «Il Rammentatore zaratino», 1859., str. 30. Errand 6 on this archive's list, closed in an afternoon.
    Split cathedral chapter Through the parish or the chapter office — this is a request to see a burial vault, so allow time. Istražujem kanonika Nikolu de Franceschija, pokopanog 1716. u kanoničkoj grobnici u koru. The physical end of the Crete-to-Dalmatia link.
    Državni arhiv u Splitu Reading room, book ahead. Zanimaju me bilježnički spisi i zemljišni izvori za Omiš i Imotski, prezime Franceschi / de Franceschi. The notarial spine of the whole Dalmatian line.

    What the trip is actually for

    Questions this archive cannot answer from a desk. Going is the only method left.

    Is the Crete link a document or a tradition?

    One document: Don Nicolò, canon of St Vitus of Candia, buried at Split in 1716. Everything else is published scholarship treating the Seget and Gologorica families as two Istrian branches of one house — the largest single claim anyone has made about this surname in Istria, and untested here.

    Where does the Imotski splice actually fail?

    The retired 2018 GEDCOM joined this line to David's own. It does not join. Going will not fix that — but the notarial records at Split would show what the Imotski family actually was, which is the only way to stop the splice coming back.

    What is on page 30?

    A single citation this archive has repeated and never read. It could name the palace's builders outright.

    Everything to photograph, in one list

    13 frames this archive does not have. Print it.

    Five rules for the churchyard
    • Photograph the whole stone before the detail. Half the gaps in this archive are because a name was framed and the dates were not.
    • Ask before photographing inside a church, always, and never during a service.
    • Do not photograph recent graves with living relatives named on them. This site omits living people, and that begins in the churchyard.
    • Write down the house-names. Nobody else is going to.
    • Note what you did not find. An empty cemetery is a finding, and this archive publishes those too.

    Sources for every claim on this page are on the pages it links to. Drive times and distances are approximate and were not measured on the ground; check the roads and the opening hours before you go. The other itineraries →