Jacobo de Franceschi (of Svetvinčenat, fl. 1737–1752)

The best-attested man of the name at the castle in these years, and he is nearly always somebody else's godfather. 26 December 1737 he baptises twins. «…baptizavit duos infantulos geminos natos hodie mane a Jacobo de Franceschi, et Anzola ejus legitima uxore ambobus ex hac Parochia, quibus fuit positum nomen, uni [Cesare?] alteri Antonij» — two boys born that morning, godparents Natale Zanzevich (?) and Clara, widow of Bartolomeo Braccato. In no index anywhere. And he stands at other people's fonts through the whole stretch — 27 November 1737, 12 January 1738, 16 February 1738 — which is what a settled householder does. By 1752 his wife has a different name. Twice that year the register writes the godmother as his wife: «Franca Marcario uxor Jacobi Defranceschi» on 26 March and «Francisca uxor Jacobi Defranceschi» on 17 December. And within ten months the register gives him three different wives. Anzola at the twins' baptism, 26 December 1737; «Agata uxor Jacobi de Franceschi» on 10 August 1738; «Jacoba uxor Jacobi de Franceschi» on 7 September 1738; and then «Angela uxor Jacobi Defranceschi» on 1 March 1739 — Angela is Anzola, so she is alive on both sides of the other two. One man cannot have had three wives in those ten months, which leaves two possibilities and this archive prefers neither: either more than one Jacobo de Franceschi was living in the parish at once, or the godparent formula is not reliable about husbands' forenames — and there is a reason to suspect the second, because Jacoba is named six weeks earlier as the wife of Pietro, and a clerk writing «Jacoba uxor Jacobi» may simply have been pulled by her own name. (See the method note.) By 1752 the wife is Francisca Marcario. Whether that is a remarriage or a second man is the same unanswered question, fifteen years later. (doc for every appearance; the identity across 1737 and 1752 is inf and flagged.) Film 005497885, images 115–117 — Births 1709–1764 of Svetvinčenat, read on the plate 22 September 2026. --- 23 September 2026 — a second baptism, and then a withdrawal. The baptism is real. «Casparus filius legitimus Jacobi Defranceschi, et Francisca ejus legitimæ uxoris, amborum ex hac Parochia», born 1 June 1743 — Casparus di Jacobo Defranceschi 1743. (doc.) ⚠ What this archive published on the strength of it, for about an hour, was wrong. It said the Jacobo of 1737 and the Jacobo of 1752 were one man who remarried — Anzola dying after 1739, Francisca from 1743 — and that the two women's dates did not overlap. They do overlap, with a third woman this page never consulted. The archive's own households file already carried [h107] Giacomo de Franceschi × Pascasia, four children 1750–1759, read off the same volume at images 155, 163, 169 and 179. Francisca is his wife in 1743 and twice in 1752. Pascasia is bearing his children from 1750. One man cannot have both. And h107 is not the only one. The parish holds [h108] Giacomo × Anzola (1737), [h113] Giacomo × Francisca (1743), [h107] Giacomo × Pascasia (1750–1759) and [h109] Giacomo × Nicolina Teserati (1773–1778) — besides «Domenico Gasparo, son of Giacomo» baptised in 1732. Forty-six years of one forename fathering children. That is two generations at least, and the archive cannot yet say which act belongs to which man. So the original doubt stands, restored: either more than one Jacobo de Franceschi was living in the parish at once, or the godparent formula is not reliable about husbands' forenames. The first is now the likelier of the two, and the 1738 Agata and Jacoba lines are no longer explained away — they go back to being unexplained. The failure was not a misreading. Every entry quoted on this page was read correctly. The conclusion was drawn without checking it against the households this archive had already built — the contradiction was sitting in its own files, in a volume it had already read. Recorded on /corrections/.