Adoptee from Tuscany

[CamillaRI]

My great great grandfather, Ghilardo, was born in 1880, and adopted by a family living in a village close to Bagni di Lucca in Tuscany. Noone knows excactly where he was born, or who his biolocal parets were.

However, I have a couple of questions regarding this matter. I have been reading the article about adoptees and foundlings (which was really useful!), but I still have some questions that I hope someone can help me with.

- Is it likely that Ghilardo was born close to or in Bagni di Lucca, or did the adoptees usually come from distant parts of the country? (generally speaking)
- Through the article I learned that adoptions were usually handled by the Catholic church. But is it the chuch where the adoptee was born, or where the adopters lived, that has/had the adoption papers?
- If I find the marriage certificate from Ghilardo’s marriage to my great great grandmother Argentina, am I likely to find any leading information which can help me further on? (also generally speaking)

I hope you understand my questions, and that someone out there knows a thing or two about Italian adoptions in the 1880’ies. The questions are very general, so I hope someone can give me some general answers regarding adoptions in Tuscany.

Camilla, Norway

[Joannsalvo]

If I were you, I would try to locate every document I coul, you never know what clues it may have to help you in your research.
In my case, my great-grandfather, Giuseppe Ognibene was a foundling/orphan in Sicily , born in 1867.
I located my great-grandfather's marriage record in Belmonte Mezzagno, Sicily and it stated he was born in Palermo. But fortunately, his death record stated he was born in Termini Immerese. With this information, I was then able to get his "birth" record, even though it did not state any parent names.
Belmonte Mezzagno and Termini Immerese are about 30 miles apart.
We knew the name of the family that "adopted" him, I don't know if it was a legal adoption or not because he keep the Ognibene name through his life.
I researched the family that "adopted" him and what I found out was that they only had one son and I believe other children died young. In fact, the father died young too.
Good Luck in your search.

[adelfio]

I would try the Family History films nati (births)for the time frame of Bagni di Lucca (Lucca), 1866-1935 that would be a start to your quest.The film of births goes from 1868-1885 there might some info and it might just say i genitori ignoto parents unknown this would be a start.
The Family History film is Nati 1868-1885
FHL INTL Film #1795973
Family History Locator
https://www.familysearch.org/locations
Ordering films from FHL
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/ ... ory_Center
Reading and translating Italian records
https://www.familysearch.org/learningce ... 22Italy%22


Marty