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Note: Notes for Domenica "Mamie" Munisteri then Monastero: A photo of Domenica Munisteri's 1841 birth and baptismal record: <a href="https://goo.gl/photos/5QRMeLZZZahFFHLg6">Photo</a>
Italian women of the time almost always kept their full birth name for life. They did not take on their husband's last name when they got married.
On August 27, 1854, Domenica Munisteri, at the very young age of 13, married 24 year old Salvadore Campisi in Montallegro, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
Seven years later, on September 16, 1861, in Montallegro, Domenica Munisteri gave birth to a son, whose birth record shows his name as Pietro Munisteri. The information given for the creation of Pietro's birth certificate was stated by a midwife. Usually the husband stated the details, but sometimes it was a midwife. The midwife stated that Pietro's mother was Domenica Munisteri, and that Pietro's father's name was "ignoto", which means unknown.
But Domenica Munisteri was apparently still married to Salvadore Campisi. But then why wasn't her baby given the first name of Salvadore's father, Francesco, as was the Italian custom for naming the firstborn son? Why was her baby given his mother's last name, instead of Salvadore's last name; Campisi? Why was the name of her baby's father stated as unknown?
Maybe Salvadore and Domenica had been separated or divorced. (No divorce records were kept.) But Salvadore's 1863 death record states that he was the spouse of Domenica Munisteri.
Maybe Domenica wasn't happy with the man - Salvadore Campisi - who, for whatever unknown reasons, had married the 13-year-old Domenica Munisteri when he was a grown man, 11 and a half years older than the young teen.
What seems the most likely story as to why Domenica's baby born in 1861 was given first and last names that didn't make sense for a husband named Salvadore Campisi, is that Salvadore was probably infertile. Birth records from Montallegro show no children born to either Salvadore Campisi or Domenica Munisteri; from before the couple were married in 1854, until Domenica gave birth to Pietro Munisteri - the apparent son of Ferdinando Marchese - in 1861. So Salvadore was probably infertile, Domenica wanted children, and tried to get pregnant for five or six years, then finally decided to try elsewhere. Maybe there were other problems in the marriage.
It seems most likely that Domenica's baby had been fathered during an affair with her future husband Ferdinando Marchese. The fact that the baby was named Pietro (which followed the Italian custom of naming the firstborn son after his father's father) when Ferdinando's father was Pietro Marchese, seems to indicate that Ferdinando was the biological father of Pietro Munisteri (who changed his name to Pietro Marchese in 1897 or 1898). But apparently Domenica was afraid to state for the purpose of the baby's birth record that her husband Salvadore was not the infant's father, because she was apparently still married to Salvadore, as his 1863 death record states.
Salvadore Campisi died on August 23, 1863, leaving a 22-year-old pregnant widow, Domenica Munisteri, who already had one child; Pietro Munisteri. Domenica did have the assistance of her boyfriend Ferdinando Marchese.
Domenica and Fernando had a second child together - Giuseppe Marchese - in 1864, before Domenica and Ferdinando later married in 1865. (More about the couple's known children is in Ferdinando's "notes" in this chart.)
At the time of Domenica's son Pietro's 1891 marriage, her name, as written on Pietro's marriage record, was still Domenica Munisteri. At that time she lived in Comitini, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
The January 7, 1900, marriage record for Domenica's son Luigi Marchese has her name written very clearly as Domenica "Monastero". That last name might have been a mistake, but maybe Domenica had changed her last name from Munisteri to Monastero. At that time she lived in Casteltermini, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
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