Labin
The oldest books in the Istrian catalogue — from 1536 — and a family that only shows up three centuries into them.
Labin's eleven volumes open in 1536, the earliest of any Istrian parish FamilySearch has filmed, and they have never been read here.
The archive has carried «Labin 1615 — Aloÿsius Defranceschi» as the single earliest indexed occurrence of the surname anywhere in Istria. Read by image against the parish's own books, that entry is not in the pool this archive can see, and the records that are run 1826–1866. The 1615 is not withdrawn — it may sit in a harvest this pass did not reach — but it is not confirmed either, and the honest statement is that Labin's confirmed run begins two centuries later than the page has implied.
Six of the fourteen indexed hits are Franceschich, Francescich, Francocich — Slavic formations of the same root, and not this family.
What is here is a married-out daughter and her family: Dominica Defranceschi × Antonius Zustovich, with children baptised 1853, 1857, 1861, 1864 and 1866. Earlier, in 1824 and 1827, a Maria Defranceschi stands in two marriage entries as the mother of the parties.
The registers
What survives, where it is kept, and whether you can see it without going there.
| Baptisms | 1536–1878 |
| Marriages | 1662–1868 |
| Burials | 1585–1910 |
| Books catalogued | 11 — digitised |
| Held at | FamilySearch, Croatia Church Books |