I recently got ancestors' "Atti di Matrimonio" and "Publicazioni di Matrimonio" from my FHL. I am confused as to which is the actual wedding date.

At the very beginning of "Publicazioni di Matrimonio", it states that all the parties involved went to the civil office on March 23 and asked for Banns to be published. The right hand side gives the dates when the Banns were published, March 29, March 5 (should surely be April 5), and April 9.

At the very beginning of "Atti di Matrimonio" it states that on May 19 the parties again went to the civil office and asked to be united in matrimony, and presented documents, etc, etc.

Does this mean that the date of May 19 is the legal date that they were married at the civil office, and the church ceremony is not recorded, except maybe with the church?

I would appreciate any help from those of you with more experience with marriage records.

Mary

Yes May 19 is the actual civil marriage date. The Church ceremony was recorded only in the Parish. In 1929 there was an agreement between Italy and The Vatican and a marriage celebrated in the Parish would be automatically transcribed also in the civil registers.

Thank you, Livio, for clearing that up.

Now, what if I were to try and get my grandparents' "Atti di Matrimonio". They were married before 1929 and the year is not available on FHL microfilm. I would think that a couple would remember the date when they actually went to the church and were married by the priest not the date thay they stood before a town official. So, the date that my grandmother told me as her wedding date is probably not the "legal" one and I would have no way of knowing what date to give the "comune".

Thanks again for your help.
Mary

Many "Comuni" would do a search with a span of 10 years. You may try...