Marriage Certificates

Updated May 21, 2025

Women in Italy retain their maiden name all their lives. This practice is not only a cultural custom but also a formal regulation established by the Italian civil registration system.

In fact, under the Italian Civil Code (Article 143 bis), women who marry have the option — not the obligation — to add their husband’s surname after theirs, but they cannot legally replace their own surname with their husband’s. Even today, non-Italian citizens who marry in Italy do not change their surname by marriage under Italian law, and they must continue using their original surname in all official documents, ID cards, and passports throughout their lives..

This tradition also makes tracing family genealogies much easier.

Enrico Tomassi and Maria Mastrella New York Marriage Registration 1916

Italian Marriage Certificate Antonio Tomassi and Francesca Alonzi

Italian Marriage Certificate Pasquale Tomassi and Angela DiSarra

Italian Marriage Certificate Albino Di Agostino and Angela Pucci April 1885

Italian Marriage Notice for Davide D’Agostino and Caterina Danesi

Marriage Certificate for Salvatore D’Agostino and Mary Tomassi

Notice one document looks like Tomasso and the other as Tomassi

New York Marriage License for Angelo Bianchi and Frances Tomasso

Marriage Certificate for Angelo Tomasso and Assunta Croce

For generations the family trees from Villavallelonga show that Lippas married Tantalos, Ferraris and DiCesares, Grandes married DiCesares, Ferraris and Palozzis. Bianchis married everyone and so on.

Since about 1780s the Tomassis from Sora mostly married Fiorinis, Lombardis or Alonzis/Alonzos.

Pasquale was NOT the first from Sora to find a bride in VVL! Records from the late 1800s show that Anna Maria Guarracini from Sora married Rocco Tantalo from VVL. And her sister Emilia Guarracini married Leonardo DiCesare from VVL.

To a lesser extant this also happened in Pescosolido and Sant’Egidio alla Vibrata.