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Francesco and Filandro: Two Branches

In the eighteenth century the Tamanti family enters the parish record in its own right. The baptism index of Sant’Egidio lists twenty-nine Tamanti children between 1689 and 1757. It records Ermenegildo on 13 November 1704 and Filandro on 27 February 1755, and both dates agree with Carle’s published genealogy. Local records speak of the palazzo of the “Ill.mo Signor Ermenegildo Tamanti”, with a room called the Camera di San Gaetano. By the early 1800s the family had divided into two branches, each with its own land. That division runs through the rest of this story.

Two branches

Filandro’s line

Ermenegildo Gaetano Tamanti (b. 1704) and his wife Cristofana Feci had at least two sons, Giacomo and Filandro. Filandro’s children include the brothers Ermenegildo and Dr Antonio. In about 1820 the cadastre registered the two brothers together as owners of a 98-parcel estate at Il Casato (Sparampaglia), with a farmhouse and stable on parcel 83. It also listed their holdings in section A of the cadastre (Tavole indicative, Tomo I p. 9; original on CASTORE).

Dr Francesco’s line

Carle’s chart shows a second branch headed by Dr Francesco Tamanti (b. 1757) and his wife Appollonia Bardi. Their children include Maria and Gaetano (b. 1801). The cadastre of about 1820 names “Tamanti Gaetano di Francesco” as owner of a house on parcel 59 at Scarnaquoja, the core of the Chiusa farm, with vines and olives on the neighbouring parcels (see Gaetano’s Scarnaquoja ledger pages, for example Tavole indicative, Tomo III p. 101). Gaetano never married. Carle records that he wrote a will in 1847 and petitioned the Grand Duke about it (Carle, La patria locale, 1996, p. 296). Dr Francesco was probably another son of Ermenegildo Gaetano. That would make him Filandro’s younger brother and Maria and Gaetano Filandro’s niece and nephew. The research notes treat him this way, but none of the sources used here states it outright.

The “Tamanti Minori” of 1810

Dr Francesco was dead by the summer of 1810. On 19 June 1810 a sworn statement was filed with the marriage papers of one Bartolommeo Martini. It describes a farm where a woman had died in December 1751. At that time the farm belonged to the hospital of Santa Maria della Croce. In 1810 it belonged to the “Tamanti Minori, figli del fu Francesco”, the under-age children of the late Francesco Tamanti (notarial act of 19 June 1810, reg. 196, p. 344; original on Antenati).

Detail: 'Tamanti Minori, figli del fu Francesco'
Detail: 'Tamanti Minori, figli del fu Francesco'. Matrimoni allegati reg. 196, p.344. Evidence E07. Original online.

The act does not name the children, their guardians, or how they came to own the farm. The farm’s name is hard to read. Maria and Gaetano are the obvious candidates, but that needs a baptism or succession record to confirm. The idea that this farm later formed part of Maria’s dowry is a hypothesis, not a demonstrated transfer.

A run of marriages, 1809–1820

Under Napoleonic rule Tuscany began civil registration, and Tamanti marriages start to appear in it.

Marriage of Clemente Santi and Maria Tamanti (dau. of Francesco and Appollonia Bardi)
Marriage of Clemente Santi and Maria Tamanti (dau. of Francesco and Appollonia Bardi). Restoration civil register, S. Egidio, act 8. Evidence E09. Original online.

The records name two different mothers for Filandro’s children. The owner’s family tree gives Barbara Francescoli as the mother of Anna and Francesca. The civil acts give Teresa Capei as the mother of Barbara and Antonio. The spelling of Francescoli has still to be checked against the original handwriting. Whether Filandro married twice is unconfirmed.

Giacomo, the elder brother (d. 1819)

Giacomo Tamanti appears again and again in these years. He signed Anna’s marriage act in 1809. He sat on the town council in 1812, alongside Filandro (Carle, 1996, pp. 81, 83). In February 1819 he was a witness when Maria, probably his niece, married Clemente Santi. His death record settles who he was. He died on 1 October 1819, aged 78, a landowner who had never married, the son of Ermenegildo and Cristofana Feci (death record, Morti 1819, reg. 15, row 185; original on Antenati).

Death of Giacomo Tamanti, 78, possidente, celibe, son of Ermenegildo and Cristofana Feci
Death of Giacomo Tamanti, 78, possidente, celibe, son of Ermenegildo and Cristofana Feci. Morti 1819, reg. 15, row 185, act 27. Evidence E10. Original online.

So Giacomo was Filandro’s elder brother, not his son, and probably the “Jacomo 1742” in Carle’s tree. Carle’s 1812 council table gives Giacomo’s age as 22 and Filandro’s as 70, which does not fit. Filandro, born in 1755, would have been 57. The Giacomo who married in 1848 was a different man, a grandson of Filandro who was probably named after this great-uncle.

Another relative died in the same decade. In May 1815 the death register records Canon Carlo Tamanti, son of Ermenegildo (Morti 1815, no. 91, on Antenati). Where he fits in the tree is still to be worked out.

Sources on this page