Need help translating a birth record please

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dbc2014
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Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

Hello all. I was wondering if someone could help me interpret/translate this birth record from Torino. Family stories are that she was born an orphan; somehow she ended up being raised in Rocca Canavese, but we do not know by whom. I am wondering if there is any additional information that may be learned in this record. Thank you very much for any help you can provide. Regards.
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erudita74
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

This record is dated on Nov 21, 1866 at 8:30 a.m. in Torino

the information comes from the Maternity Hospital of Torino- at 7 P.M., on the 19th, an infant of female sex was abandoned at this hospital. She was apparently one day old. The rest of the document is a description of the items left with the infant. She was given the name Margherita Eurosia* Acomas.

Her marriage info appears in the margin, but you have cut that off and I can only read the month of Feb. There is no info in the document concerning who raised her.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosia

Erudita
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

I didn't mean to type the word "hospital." I meant to type the word "home" or charitable institution.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

Erudita, thank you so much for your help. I was very happy to find this record in the LDS microfilms, but I wondered where she was abandoned in Torino, and I could not tell. She never knew who her parents were, and we never knew who raised her; only that she grew up and married my ggf in Rocca.

As I have been reviewing LDS microfilms from Rocca Canavese, I have found several instances of babies born in Torino being raised by families in Rocca. Do you (or does anyone) know the history behind how those babies got from Torino to Rocca? Was this a program that the church managed, or did towns have partnerships with charitable homes in Torino? And how did they choose which families raised the babies? I find all of this very interesting to learn.

Thank you again. You have been very helpful! Best regards.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

In those days, there was no bottle feeding, as pasteurization of milk had not yet taken place, so an infant, whether abandoned or not, had to be breastfed by a lactating woman-that is, by a woman who herself had recently given birth or who had recently lost a child whom she had still been breastfeeding. In a facility such as the one where Margherita was abandoned, there would have been internal wetnurses who had the responsibility of providing immediate nourishment for the infants left there. But, there were also external wetnurses, who were women who took abandoned infants into their homes and received a stipend from their towns for doing so. So it’s possible that the facility in Torino where Margherita was abandoned had an agreement with the other town to provide external wetnurses, since you say that so many infants abandoned in Torino ended up there.

If you want to read more about the subject of abandoned children in Italy-there are some interesting books available. These are two of my favorites:

Sacrificed for Honor:Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control by David I Kertzer

Amalia's Tale-also by Prof Kertzer

Erudita

BTW, the time in the record was 7:30 and not 7, as I had originally typed.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by rymini »

Great info Erudita~thanks for Sharing
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

Wow - thank you Erudita for such interesting information! I wondered how that worked, and you have provided excellent insight into how the infants were cared for and ended up with those families. Thank you yet again! Best regards.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

You're both very welcome. If you have any other questions on the subject of infant abandonment in Italy, don't hesitate to ask. I've done a great amount of research on this topic.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

Thank you again so much for the information. I really appreciate learning this from you.
I do have a question: do you know how or by whom the infants were named? Her birth name was Margherita Eurosia Acomas. Eurosia seems to be a common name among orphaned infants, from a saint? I have no idea where Acomas would have come from. Do you? Again, thank you so much for sharing all that you know. We are all learning! Best regards.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

By the way, you mentioned that the document had some description of items left with the infant. Can you tell what those would have been? Again, many thanks for all of the work you are doing to help all of us learn about our Italian ancestors. Best regards.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

will try to get back to you soon. Ice storm here left us without power since yesterday evening. Just got it back but internet is going in and out.
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by dbc2014 »

No worries! Good luck. I live in TN and luckily we just got snow and kept power. Take care and thank you!
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Re: Need help translating a birth record please

Post by erudita74 »

Here is an article about the name Eurosia. She was a saint and had been orphaned herself. I had never before seen this name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosia

As to the surname in the record, foundlings were normally given names invented by the town official when they were presented at the town hall after birth and were therefore normally the only individual in the town with the surname. So, if you look at the microfilm where this birth record was found, you may find that the surname of the infant preceding and following this one on the film was a variation in spelling of this one. Some towns though did give foundlings surnames which indicated their status as foundlings-such as Trovatelli (which means foundling) or Esposito (which means exposed).

In the record, I see that five items were with Margherita. As best I can decipher the handwriting, these were the items that she was wrapped in-
due cuffiette (two bonnets)
un camicina (the word camicia means shirt, so I am thinking the word in the record is the diminutive meaning “little shirt”
una pezza- a piece of cloth
una fascia-swaddling that the baby was wrapped tightly in
un tela di moltone ( I believe the word should be mottone) which is cloth made out of sheepskin

I am sending you a private message too.

Erudita
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