More questions "Help with foundling birth record" thread

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tmac
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More questions "Help with foundling birth record" thread

Post by tmac »

Hi All,

I’m a newbie also to this site and after reading many of the related posts and articles here I also wanted to ask and build upon Salbanal’s “Help with foundling birth record” thread.

My Sicilian grandfather was adopted/foster child (or born out of wedlock/founding) and has been very difficult to research prior to coming to the US. I would really like to find out much more about him and is birth parents.

His name is Stefano Maugeri, born Siracusa, (Augusta) Sicily Jan 7, 1891 - Wife Sebastiana Annie Morello, Siracusa Italy Aug 15, 1903 - Lived/raised in Augusta Sicily an emigrated to USA in 1923.

My Mom is getting up there (as we all are) and will be 85 this next march. She has always been very interested to find out more about her father’s lineage so I’ve taken up the challenge to try to put together some of the pieces for her birthday.

I do know that my Grandmother’s family (Morello) raised my grandfather as one of their own. The story I’ve head most often is that my great grandmother (Rose DeLuca) lost a male child at birth or a very early age. She was fearful that her husband (who was out to sea) would not take it well so she took my grandfather in as her own. I really don’t know how my grandfather was able to keep his birth name if taken in or how long the deception took place , but I’m guessing the birth mother was a relative. Once again the name I’ve heard most often was Marie ALiotti (seems to be Liotta) but I have no idea if that is true or not. Well, I guess that’s part of the challenge.

From LW : translation for Stefano's birth registration
Mauferi Stefano (eposto=foundling) first part the registration of the birth is being transferred from another office in Catania (no particular reason I can tell) recorded 09JAN1891, born 08JAN*
birth reported by Maria Liotta, comune of Catania, of an infant about a day old*, with the following items: two caps, a shirt, a little vest, a headband, a couple of cloths.
Baptized 09OCT, and given the name Stefano Maugeri; godmother G La Mastra

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1 ... cc=1912932

I have also submitted DNA samples ( FTDNA) for both my mom (mtDna) and my uncle’s male child (Y-DNA) with very few hits. So that is a dead end for now.

So my questions are:

1. As it concerns the birth certificate - What does "birth reported by Maria Liotta" mean? Could she be the birth mother? What about the godmother G La Mastra - a Relative possibly of the birth mother or father?

2. Would there be any more documents about him - say in military record or merchant Marine records as I think he was a fisherman and may been in the navy/Merchant marine service. If so how would I go about finding them

4. If all fails, is there any way to contract out a person to locally research the records and local area? If so has anyone ever had success with that?

Thank you in advance,
Tom
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adelfio
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Re: More questions "Help with foundling birth record" thread

Post by adelfio »

If his parents did not recognize him as their son by the time he got married he most likely never knew who his parents were
Heres the:

Marriage of Stefano Maugeri and Sebastiana Morello
INDEX#101
10/18/1919 in the town of Augusto province of Siracusa marriage of Stefano Maugeri age 28 father and mother both unknown married Sebastiana Morello age 16 daughter of Sebastiano Morello and Rosa De Luca

PG LINK TO RECORD
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1 ... cc=2110810

Marty
Researching Trabia, Palermo surnames Adelfio, Bondi, Butera, Scardino,Rinella, Scardamaglia

Marty
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Italysearcher
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Re: More questions "Help with foundling birth record" thread

Post by Italysearcher »

There are lots of articles on my website that will help you understand foundling births.
It is very unlikely you will ever find definitive proof of his birth parents. Child abandonment was anonymous for several reasons and unless the birth parents came forward and officially recognized him there will be no written record of them.
If your DNA test did not show connections to you then he wasn't related to the family.
Maria Liotta was the person who found the child and took him to the office for registration. If her profession is levatrice then she was the midwife and certainly knew who the mother was but did not declare this to the authorities. If the mother was not married then legally she could not be identified. The Godmother was just a person at the church who took on the role to fulfill the requirements that the child had a Godmother. It is unlikely she was related to the child but you will never know.
Military records can be obtained from the State Archives by email.
Hiring someone will just cost you money and will be unlikely to produce results since Mmaria Liotta is long dead and so is anyone else who may have known who his parents were.
The invented name given to an abandoned child at birth was meant to label him as abandoned as no one else in the town would have that surname. Unless he was formally adopted (and most weren't) then he would have that name for life.
Ann Tatangelo
http://angelresearch.net
Dual citizenship assistance, and document acquisition, on-site genealogical research in Lazio, Molise, Latina and Cosenza. Land record searches and succession.
tmac
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Re: More questions "Help with foundling birth record" thread

Post by tmac »

Very interesting! Thank you so much! I'll keep on the DNA trail but until a closer match we'll just need to wait ( or get lucky) :-).
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