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Aleksej Kalc
Table 7.6 Decade Grooms Brides Total
Spouses from the Tomaj N N N
Parish in the Eighteenth
− .
Century Trieste Marriage
− .
Registers
− .
Notes Based on data
from acts, lc 1671–1773; − .
apmm, lc 1773−1820; − .
apat, lc 1780−1810. − .
− .
− .
− .
− .
Total .
as forced by political events (Cencič 2013, 62−3), rather than being also ex-
amined from the perspective of individual, familial, and community agen-
cy. The lack of information, coupled with the limited conceptualization of
migration, has led to a general disinterest in the phenomenon, particularly
concerning the period leading up to the late nineteenth century.
We can learn about emigration from the Tomaj area in the eighteenth
century from historical sources in Trieste. Trieste has traditionally relied
on the population of its broader rural surroundings to meet its labour
needs and to replenish a population that, in the pre-industrial era, often
suffered from a deficit of natural demographic growth. With the granting
of freeport status in 1719, the influx of immigrants intensified and became
the driving force behind the city’s demographic and socio-economic devel-
opment (Kalc 2006; 2008).
The immigration to Trieste can be traced through the marriage registers
of the city parishes, in which 64 grooms and 68 brides from the parish of
Tomaj were recorded over the eighteenth century (table 7.6). Most of these
individuals resided in the quarters of the old (Città Vecchia) and the new
city (Città Nuova), while some lived in the suburban rural neighbourhoods
(contrade esterne). With the increasing influx of young, single individuals,
Trieste became a bustling marriage market and these Tomajans also met
theirspouses and weddedinthe city aftermovingthere foremployment
(Breschi et al. 2001).
The brides typically arrived in the city aged between 16 and 20. Save rare
exceptions, they found work as housemaids in the city or the rural suburbs.
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