Maria de Franceschi (daughter of Antonio)

«Maria filia Antonii de Franceschi» — and until this line she was in none of this archive's files. Frame 112 of the Svetvinčenat baptism register, 18 January 1786: > «Antonius filius legitimus ac naturalis Thomae, et Catharinae jugalium Bercan natus heri, hodie per R[everen]dum Joannem Donicca sacro Ablutus Fonte. Patrini fuere Matthaeus Doblanovich, et Maria filia Antonii de Franceschi.» Magnified. She is a daughter of Antonio de Franceschi, witness 1773 — a fifth child beside Vittorio (about 1758), Franca de Franceschi (b. 1769) (1769), Domenica de Franceschi (b. 1776) (1776) and Domenico de Franceschi (b. 1777) (1777). (doc.) Her baptism is not where it ought to be, and that is worth saying plainly. A girl standing godmother in January 1786 is old enough to be asked — in this parish that is rarely under fifteen, which would put her birth at or before about 1771. Frames 5 to 60 of this volume cover 1764 to 1775 and have been read opening by opening. No Maria of Antonio appears in them. Two possibilities, and this archive does not choose between them: - She was born before 1764, in the previous volume — of which images 1–154 are still unread. - The sweep missed her. No birth year is recorded for her here. An age inferred from a godmother's minimum age is a guess dressed as arithmetic, and this page will not carry one. (open.) A second entry, twenty months later, and this one says where she belongs. Frame 120, 30 September 1787: > «Patrini fuere Simon Melina ex Parochia Dimini, et Maria filia Antonii de Franceschi ex hac Parochia.» Magnified. The clerk marks the other godparent as being from Dvigrad and hers as of this parish — she is a Svetvinčenat woman, not a visitor. It also confirms the January 1786 reading independently, in a different entry, in the same hand. (doc.)