Young Wives of Domenico Aggazio (1844-?). This is one of those situations where I will never know the true story, but it would be fun to know more. My paternal great grandfather Domenico Aggazio apparently was the source of a small population boom in Southern Italy. Between 1869 and 1903, Domenico had 3 wives (not at the same time) and, at last count, sired approximately 11 children. There actually could be more because I haven't gone through all of the records yet. Everything I know about Domenico comes from the civil records of San Giovanni in Fiore - a little town in Calabria. I'm hoping Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org gets this town's records online and indexed so I can more accurately sort out Domenico's marital and paternity issues.
The big mystery: Large families in southern Italy were normal, but what I find unusual is Domenico married 3 different women within a 23 year period, and all 3 of his wives were 22 years old or younger. He was 25 when he married Caterina Cimino (18) and they had at least 4 children; he was 39 when he married Teresa Barberio (20) and they had at least 4 and maybe 5 children (this is my great grandmother); and he was 48 when he married Rosa Romano (22) and it looks like they had at least 3 children. What I don't understand is why in his last two marriages he married such young women. Could the reason be that most of the marriage eligible young men had already immigrated, and the only husband material left were the old guys? Could Domenico have been a little better off financially in this poor town than other men, so parents felt he was a good marriage situation for their daughters? I know marrying for love was not too common in southern Italy at the time, but was Domenico a real ladies man and swept these young women off their feet? Even in today's world, 48 year old men don't marry women in their early 20's all that often.
Unfortunately, Domenico disappeared in the civil records after his third wife (Rosa) had a child in 1903. I did locate and contact descendants of Rosa and Domenico - one in West Virginia and one in Canada, but they had no information on the family. I sure would like to know more about Domenico and why he ended up with such young wives and potentially so many children.
