foundling record

[k8landers]

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q44/ ... aini_2.jpg



I know that my ggf Felice Zampino was a foundling and raised by Maria Corsi.

Does this entry offer any other information?

Thank you very much!

[Tessa78]

This document is very difficult to read but does state that on 20 November 1876 at 9:02 AM, Maria Corsi presented a masculine baby of (I think it says unknown parentage) at the town hall. Then I lose much of the wording except something about one day earlier at 5 AM she found the baby on Via Txxxx, in the vicinity of #4 (which I guess is her house). then I think she describes how he was clothed, or what clothes were with him.

No other names are mentioned in the document.

T.

[k8landers]

Thank you.

So he was actually found in the street? That makes me so sad. There is a different record that states that she was named as his guardian and given his name by the mayor.

I appreciate your help, friend!

I'll be back when the allegati records come in.

[Tessa78]

You are very welcome!

Yes, some of the stories of our ancestors are very sad

T.

[JohnArmellino]

As Tessa78 said, the infant Felice Zampino was found on a public street near number 4 (I can't make out the name of the street). Maria Corsi found the infant at 5:00 a.m. on the morning of November 20th. The child appeared to be one day old and was wrapped in swaddling clothes. The record seems to end abruptly...is there another page?

[maestra36]

It says the baby was the apparent age of 1 day.

I have a similar record for my paternal grandfather which I found in part two of the records for the year in which he was born. Since there was no DNA in those days, when an abandoned child was found, it would be presented at the town hall, as all newborns were, and the town official would assign the infant a name-normally one he just invented on the spot. He would also record all objects that were found with the infant-what it was wearing, or wrapped in, whether it had visible marks on its body, if it had a medal or ribbon tied to its blanket or diaper or clothes, etc. In this way, if the natural parents ever returned to claim the child, the town official would have a way of knowing if it was their child or not. In the case of my grandfather, he was reclaimed by his parents when he was 2 years and 10 months old. The woman who had found and presented him, also stated at the time that she had a petition granting custody of the infant to her. She was also a balia or wetnurse in the town. There was no bottle feeding in those days before the pasteurization of milk, so a woman had to be lactating in order to keep an abandoned infant in her care. She thus had to be a woman who had herself had children around the same age. Also she ran the risk of getting syphillis, and passing this disease on to to her husband and own children, if the abandoned infant she was breastfeeding was infected, which she wouldn't initially know.

[k8landers]

These are the other scans that I have - I'm not sure which one goes after that one, because I cut off the sides when I cropped them in order to make them easier to read. (I'll learn some day)


http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q44/ ... ni_2_2.jpg

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q44/ ... _2_2-1.jpg

[k8landers]

I still have the nati records from Bussi (1866 - 1886) so I could look to see if / well I guess WHEN she had a child of her own which would give me some information about her at least...

How long did they breast feed? I guess I should look a year or so prior?

[JohnArmellino]

The second image of your last post is the continuation of the record in question. The second page contains the language whereby the infant was given the name Felice Zampino. Sometimes these records name the wet-nurse into whose care the child was given, but I don't see that language here. You stated that Maria Corsi raised the child. I'm always suspicious when the woman who finds the child ends up raising the child, but as is the case with most abandoned children, it's very very hard to make a connection with any real surety. The record also seems to lack any reference to the presence or absence of any signs, notes, or tokens left with the child to help the parents reclaim the infant if so desired.

[maestra36]

the second scan is the continuation of the document. It talks about the official giving the infant his first and last names and that all of the objects found with the infant were recorded in the registers of the civil state.

I don't know how long the child was breastfed. I also did research about the woman who found my grandfather, in whose custody he was, at least for almost three years until his parents reclaimed him.

I found a number of children born to her and her husband in the years right before and after my grandfather was abandoned on her doorstep. She and her husband were close in age to his parents. His natural parents must have known that she was a town balia or wetnurse to have specifically picked out her house. A balia normally got a stipend from the town to breastfeed these abandoned children in her own home, and since these women were farmers and very poor, they did it for the extra money. The address on my grandfather's record where he was abandoned is the same address that was on her children's birth records, where they were born. But, other than getting that type of information, and possibly coming to the conclusion that my father (my grandfather's oldest son) was named for either this balia's father-in-law or one of her sons who had died who had the same first name, the information I discovered about her and her family from her marriage record and her children's birth records was really useless.

[k8landers]

So are you suspicious that the woman named is actually the mother? When speaking with a volunteer at the history center, we thought that she could have been a friend of the mother..but the lactation issue sure puts a kink in that...and no tokens...

[maestra36]

Sometimes natural mothers abandoned children just so that they could then collect a stipend from the town and be its wet nurse

[maestra36]

In the case of my grandfather, the woman who found him was not the natural mother. I have the birth records of both of his parents who were also both abandoned children.

[maestra36]

The woman who found him was born in another town, but she married in my grandfather's town and her husband was from my grandfather's town.

[maestra36]

I don't see in your document where it says she was given custody of the infant. In my grandfather's birth record, it says the woman who found him was granted custody.