I am arbitrating death records for the FHL, Castellammare di Stabia.

The record includes (of course) the name, name of father, name of mother, and spouse.

In every record I have ever seen prior to this, in the area for the fathers name, they enter just his first name. You assume, the last name is that of the person.

I am coming across parents and child, all with different surnames.

The first few I found, the childs surname was Esposito. The father had a different surname and the mother, yet another surname. I thought maybe this child was a foundling. Then I thought..could this be the fathers profession..but, no..because there is a spot for that, which is always filled in.

Today, I discovered several other documents like this and the surname of the person was not Esposito.

I can tell, those typing in the information are also confused. Some will enter the name as the fathers surname, even tho its different from the person and others are just using "blank", not entering a surname for the father.

Whats up with this? Anybody know?

Esposito is a surname for illegit. children. It literally means "exposed." Sort of a snarky thing to label an illegit. child like that. Anyhow, that is why the children would have a different surname than the father, because Esposito is a made up name for the illegit. kids.

But, that isnt the case. The first that I happened to notice, that had the father with a different surname, just happened to be Esposito people. The rest of them..arent. The person who died has one surname, the father a different one..and the mother yet a different one. So, this has nothing to do with esposito..as I originally thought.

I have never seen anything like this before and I have been viewing italian records for almost 17 years. I just cant figure out why the father would have a different surname than the child.

Could you post an example here?

Shoot..I just sent one off that was like that. When I come across the next one, I will try and get a screenshot. I am not supposed to do that tho. Maybe I can take it in parts.