Italian / Spanish Opera Singers Need Connecting

Question

Italian opera singer Giovanni Zenatello (1876-1949) and his wife, Catalan mezzo-soprano Maria Gay (1876-1943), both have well developed profiles but are not yet conneced to the Big Tree. Any members of the Italian or Spanish Projects want to give these two Notables a try?

Answer 1

We can certainly try! Verona and Milan, like most of north-Italy is a bit difficult to research because the civil sources are a bit scattered, not indexed, and church records not online. But both of them seem to be well documented persons, so, something has to come up.

Comments

First fact: I was reading the biographies and both mention a "misterious" marriage in Milan in 1906, but it's no mistery at all, it was a simulation. Spain didn't grant divorce until 1981 except for a brief period around 1932 before their Civil War and Italy didn't grant full divorce until 1970. So, they couldn't have been legally married in neither of both countries.

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Thanks for this wonderful tidbit of historical information. I have updated both profiles. If you think I've still got it wrong let me know or simply go ahead and rework the profile.

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You got it perfectly right . Famous case in later years was film producer Carlo Ponti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Ponti and actress Sophia Loren (big scandal at the time). Ponti was even banished from entering Italy or he wold be accused of bigamy and put into prison. In the cases of less famous people, sometimes phony marriage acts were produced to avoid social rejection of the new couple and their children. 

I'm sorry I was absent during the weekend, 4th round of COVID-vaccine got me down with a fever.

But I have a new fact for you: I found the birth record of a daughter of Giovanni, with another lady singer named Clotilde Albessano: 

https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ua19800595/0MdlObW

Since it was an out-of-wedlock child, she was registered with her mother's last name: Luigia Teresa Giovanna Maria Albessano, born 17th november 1904 in Rome. She was recognized by her father and given his last name in 1907:

https://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/ark:/12657/an_ua19803058/5g6MN4p

I'm not sure if this is the same Giovanna that appears in later documents, like his USA immigration and naturalization forms (they're on Familysearch).

Also found Maria's death record in: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/

I'll kee searching for the italian and spanish ancestors/sibling, though it's not easy because they're not indexed and both came from relatively large cities with several boroughs within.