François Giacobbi and family

[Mary from Italy]

There's a bit of a mystery about François' parents.

As I said, he and his brothers had quite posh jobs; Alexandre was a Colonel of the Gendarmerie, and (Antoine Jean) Dominique was Chairman of the Civil Court of First Instance in Algiers (something like the UK High Court) when he witnessed his sister's marriage in 1840, and a conseiller at the Law Courts in Algiers when he married in 1843, so you'd expect them to come from a pretty respectable family.

However...

I found the marriage of the parents, Charles-Joseph Giacobbi and Marie Trani, in Cervione in 1805. The registers are irritating to search, because this was during the revolutionary period, when the French used a special revolutionary calender, so the months are called things like Rainy, Flowery and Foggy.

Fortunately I found a decent online converter to convert the dates to the Gregorian calender.

http://www.napoleon.org:81/fr/essent...rier/index.asp

Anyway, the date of marriage of Charles-Joseph and Marie is 2 Germinal an 13 (23 March 1805).

And there are the births of two children: Alexandre Giacobbi on 1 Germinal an 13 (22/3/1805) and Dominique Antoine Jean Giacobbi on 2 Germinal an 13 (23/3/1805).

No idea if they were twins, with one being born just before midnight and one just after, or from two different families. The online registers for Cervione only start in 1863, so we can't get the parents' names.

When Alexandre Giacobbi, son of Charles-Joseph G and Marie Trani died in 1875, his age was given as 70, which would fit with the first birth.

And although the other brother is only named as Dominique when he witnesses sister Marie's marriage in Cervione, he's named on his own marriage certificate in Algiers as Antoine Jean Dominique Giacobbi. However, he gives his date of birth as 13 vendémiaire an 9, and it's also given in the normal form (5 October 1800).

It seems odd enough that twins would be born the day before the parents' marriage, but even odder that one child should be born 5 years before the marriage. I can't check the birth index, because the online indexes for Cervione start in 1802.

I don't think I've misread the parents' marriage dates or the children's birth dates, but they're here if anyone wants to have a look.

Marriage (entry no. 29):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86792817@N00/11936287496/

Births (entries nos. 120 and 121)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86792817@N00/11935720643/

[Mary from Italy]

Originally Posted by Merry

Oh yes! That would be great!!

This is what I said on one of the old threads, after Shona found a Mr Giacobbi, gentleman, in the Alien Arrivals database, arriving in Dover from France:

It does seem very likely it's her husband in view of the date. I still wonder what on earth she was doing in Paris in 1848, when there was a revolution on.

They must have been right in the thick of it; the revolution broke out on 23rd June, François (possibly) visited England on 27th October, Agatha and François were married on 15th November, and the revolution ended on 2nd December when Louis Napoleon was elected President.

Those are not the actions of an ordinary person, just about to be married (there was only just about time to get the banns read if he headed straight back to France). Of course, we don't know if Agatha was already in France, or he crossed the Channel to fetch her.

And of course it might not be François at all; Mr Giacobbi, gentleman could be one of his brothers, or somebody else entirely.

[Phoenix]

Or perhaps he wanted to get a marriage settlement sorted out with her family?

[Mary from Italy]

Possibly, but you'd think the trip, and even the marriage, could have waited till after the revolution if the money was a factor.

I can't remember whether her father was still alive then.

[HarrysMum]

Agatha's father, Myles "dropped dead" in 1840 a few months after marrying Agatha's husband's sister.

Agatha was not in line for any inheritance until after her step mother/sister in law died.

Agatha's mother, Elizabeth Naylor, died 1837. She left a will which gave lots of her own money to her children. This was overturned by Myles. I know married women had to have their husband's permission to write wills, but she used her husband's solicitors so I would have presumed he knew about it.

All very odd..

[Mary from Italy]

Another complication:

We've assumed that François was a conseiller at the law courts in Algiers, because a Mr Giacobbi with that occupation was listed at 7, rue Boutin in 1849, which is the address on Agatha's death cert.

However, when his brother Dominique got married in 1843, he gave that occupation, and gave his address as rue Boutin (no number). And when his wife Laure died in 1849, his occupation was senior conseiller of the Court of Appeal, and the address given was 7 rue Boutin.

So either the two families were living together at that address, or one of them was visiting the other when the wife died.

This suggests that the Mr Giacobbi listed as conseiller at the Law Courts was actually Dominique, as the only places where François' occupation is shown are on the Paris marriage cert (own means) and Agatha's death cert (landowner).

I'm beginning to think that conseiller might be what judges were called during the revolution.

[HarrysMum]

Good point Mary.

[Mary from Italy]

Found another sister for François: Sophia Giacobbi, who in 1832 married Charles Paul Giaffari, the brother-in-law who witnessed her sister Maria's wedding.

There may be another sister; I've found her mentioned on one site, but I can't find a birth or marriage in Cervione.

[HarrysMum]

I just had another look at Francois' will. It is interesting as it has (Translated from the French) at the top of it, so I presume he wrote it in French. I would have assumed as he wrote it in San Francisco, it would have been in English.

I'm sure Agatha would have spoken French but presumed he would have spoken English as well.
He has not dated the will, but it has that it was filed in SF 13th Oct 1881.

I have it on my computer but cannot get it here. It's a PDF and I cannot copy and paste it to a word doc. If anyone knows how to let me know and I'll do that.

[Merry]

Not dating the will is a basic error suggesting he wrote the will himself rather than have a solicitor draw up the terms, so I expect that's why the will is in French, it's what came naturally to him.