One may wonder if the twins were very welcome. Sophia, was said to be a caring, hardworking and very strong lady. However she had now reached the age of 43 years. In her marrige children kept arriving with the regularity of a clock 12 in all. Three of them had died in infancy. Johanna Susanna Sophia died in 1860 only three monthts of age. Paulus Francisco died in 1861 at the age of 3 and  Margareta died in 1866 two years of age.

Giovanni Antonio made a living but the competition amongst the chimney sweeps was fierce and the times were difficult. He did not have the time to register his newborn because there was work to be done but the law did not leave him any choice. Newborn children had to be registred within three days of birth. Heavy fines were imposed upon those who did not abide to the law.

Johannes Lambertus Vitali
* 18 July 871 † 8 October 1948
picture dated 1948

Did they have a drink along the way? We don’t know but we may assume they did. According to later told stories Giovanni enjoyed an occasional drink. “ Better the children wet feet, than daddy a dry throat “ was an expression attributed to him. If this is true we are sure that he must have said this jokingly because his business eventually became a blooming one. Providing a descent living to him as well as his married sons.  

When they arrived at the registrar’s office it seemed to be a busy day. In the archives we can find that on that particular day 16 notices of birth had been given and 14 deaths had been registered.  Documents were filled in by hand and this took time. The clerks were approached with great respect, sometimes bordering on servility. “They” commanded the art of reading and writing. A knowledge not often shared by ordinary people of a working class background. It’s an open question  if they deserved this kind of respect. But as the saying goes “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king” To proof his identity Giovanni had to hand over some documents, amongst them his marriage certificate, on which his name was given as Giovanni Antonio Vitale. The clerk did not read the document with great care because on the birth certificates he wrote the surname Vitali. Giovanni signed the document with a blank face and once again was on his way home.

The family was not spared for further suffering because only 4 months later on  the 17^th of November Victorio Aquilino died. Hence Johannes Lambertus became the progenitor of all the Vitali`s ( single T) in Amsterdam. Three sisters had also been registered with the surname Vitali. However , with all due respect, they are in this regard of little interest. The sisters all got married and therefore they did not pass on their surname.