Helena di Matteo Defranceschi (1742)

«Die 10 Augusti 1742 … baptizavit unam infantulam, natam die 5 currentis a Matthæo Defranceschi, et Francisca ejus legitima uxore ambobus ex hac Parochia, cui positum fuit nomen Helena» — born 5 August, baptised 10 August 1742, godparent Martinus Stancovich. She is ten years older than her sister. The same couple baptise Irena in February 1752, and Francisca is already named as Matteo's wife in August 1741. So this household stands at the castle across at least eleven years, and both its known children were born inside the stretch no index covers. (doc.) Film 005497885, images 129–131 — Births 1709–1764 of Svetvinčenat, read on the plate 23 September 2026. In no index anywhere. --- 28 September 2026 — she marries, and it is the first marriage of a Defranceschi this archive has ever found. 9 February 1766, Svetvinčenat: «Mattio figlio di q.m Michiel Santalezza nativo dal Territorio d'Albona ma per il suo domicilio d'anni 12 c.a in questo Distretto di S. Vicenti … hà contrato il matrimonio per verba de presenti Con Elena figlia di q.m Mattio de Franceschi nativa di questo Castello» — film 005497886, frame 53, the marriage register. (doc for the act.) Read at 2.6× and not in doubt — «Con Elena figlia di q.m Mattio de Franceschi» is written clear and unabbreviated across one line. She is twenty-three and a half, born 5 August 1742, and her father is dead — «q.m», quondam. The groom is an incomer: from the territory of Albona (Labin), resident in the district about twelve years, admitted on a letter of credit the parish had to accept before he could marry here. The banns were dispensed down to two by the Vicar Capitular of Parenzo, «quantunque da una dispensati» — and the two were read on the same day, which is what a parish does when a couple is in a hurry or the season is short. ⚠ The identification is inferred, not stated. The act names «Elena figlia di q.m Mattio de Franceschi» and no more — no age, no mother, no baptism date. This archive knows exactly one Matteo de Franceschi of this castle (Matteo Defranceschi of Svetvinčenat, × Francisca) and exactly one daughter Elena born to him, in 1742, the right age to the month. His other known daughter, Irena, was thirteen and cannot be her. (inf, and about as firm as an inference in this parish gets.) Her husband and her mother now have pages of their own: Mattio Santalezza (fl. 1766) and Francisca de Franceschi, wife of Matteo. 28 September 2026 — she has a sister, and her husband stood at that sister's wedding. Fusca de Franceschi married Marc'Antonio Jacomini of Parenzo on 17 November 1773, witnessed by Mathias Santalezza. That is Helena's own husband's name, seven years on — and a brother-in-law at the altar is the ordinary reason a family chooses a witness. It is also what ties Fusca to this household. --- 28 September 2026 — her death is bracketed, from her husband's second wedding. 26 May 1777: «Ved.o Mattio Santaleza q.m Micho ha contrato matrimonio per verba de presenti con Maria figlia del q.m Ant.o Bolich» — film 005497886, frame 78, read at 2.1×. «Ved.o» is vedovo: a widower. (doc.) He is her husband. The 1766 act married her to «Mattio figlio di q.m Michiel Santalezza» of the Albona territory; this man is «Mattio Santaleza q.m Micho» — the same patronymic, the same parish, eleven years on. (inf, and close to certain.) So Elena was dead between 9 February 1766 and 26 May 1777 — married at twenty-three, dead by thirty-four at the latest, and no child of hers has been found in the baptism volume that ends in 1764 or the one that follows. ⚠ No death year is printed for her, because the bracket is eleven years wide and the register that would close it — Svetvinčenat's deaths before 1859 — is not on any film this archive can reach.