Vairano Patenora - Guglielmo Babelli (orphan)

[Amansolillo]

I am seeking information on Guglielmo Babelli. He was born about 1909 in Vairano Patenora and was discovered as an orphan. He was raised by the Di Muccio family. He married Maddalena Apici on 15 May 1930 and had three children: Filomena, Gaetano, and Anna. Guglielmo died in Vairano Patenora in 1939. I know that in the case of orphans, it is very difficult to identify the parents, but I am trying to find anyone who might know anything regarding his parentage. So far, I have had his son Gaetano take the Ancestry DNA test in hopes of finding matches that might shed some light on the mystery.

[Italysearcher]

Sometimes the original birth record, properly interpreted can provide some clues but you will probably need to request this from the Comune. There are lots of posts on my website about foundlings that may help you with your quest.

[Amansolillo]

I have looked through the birth records of Vairano Patenora and neighboring towns from 1900-1910 and was unable to find any birth records for Guglielmo Babelli. I even tried searching for Guglielmo Esposito on the off chance that he was given the last name Babelli upon adoption. The last name Babelli is not used at all in Vairano or any other towns in the area. A search for Babelli in the Pagine Bianche yields no results either, which has me to believe that he was born with a different last name and was given the last name Babelli. Apparently, the DiMuccio family which adopted Guglielmo was a relatively wealthy family and may have had the means to travel far, which might mean Guglielmo came from farther than Caserta. I plan on writing to the town to request a copy of Guglielmo and Maddalena's marriage record. Hopefully it may mention where Guglielmo was born.

I looked through Gaetano's Ancestry DNA matches recently and made some observations. There are many matches that come from Calabria. The fact that for several matches of non full blooded Italian descent, the only Italian that they are comes from Calabria, suggests to me that one of Guglielmo's parents must have been from Calabria, as the rest of the matches come up from Campania, which is where his wife Maddalena was from. I have narrowed it down to the Reggio di Calabria area. About 30 matches come from Scilla, with some others from Bagnara Calabra and Varapodio. In addition, Gaetano has many matches from Foggia, with a heavy concentration in the area around Faeto and Roseto Valfortore. Similar to the matches from Calabria, there are some matches where the only Italian part of their family comes from Foggia. Assuming hypothetically that one of Guglielmo's parents was from Calabria and the other was from Foggia, the question would now be how they encountered each other and how their son ended up in Caserta.