Antonio Ricci, possibly adopted founding Antonio Giunone?

[erudita74]

Robert
I've never heard about the foundling wheel being in anyone's private home, so I don't think so. I looked at the record above Antonio's, but that infant was not a child of the wheel. I didn't look through the other records in that town though.
Erudita

[mmogno]

It would be interesting to look at more records in the town for other foundlings. Maybe that would shed some light.

#1
http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... ewsIndex=0

#4
http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.i ... ewsIndex=0

[rfiorille]

Robert
I've never heard about the foundling wheel being in anyone's private home, so I don't think so. I looked at the record above Antonio's, but that infant was not a child of the wheel. I didn't look through the other records in that town though.
Erudita

Below is something I had read that made me think the wheel could have possibly been located in Luigi's house (from http://www.conigliofamily.com/Foundlings.htm)

THE WHEEL: The wheel was a kind of 'lazy Susan' that had a small platform on which a baby could be placed, then rotated into the building, without anyone on the inside seeing the person abandoning the child. That person then pulled a cord on the outside of the building, causing an internal bell or chimes to ring, alerting those inside that an infant had been deposited. In the larger towns, foundlings were baptized, then kept in a foundling home with others, and fed by wet-nurses in the employ of the home. There they may have stayed for several years until they were taken by townspeople as menial servants or laborers, or placed with a foster family. Or, sadly but more likely, they never left the institution, having died from malnutrition or from diseases passed on by the wet-nurses.

In smaller towns, the foundling wheel may have been in the wall of the residence of a local midwife. She would have received the child, possibly suckled it immediately to keep it alive, or arranged for a wet-nurse to do so, then taken it to the church to be baptized and to the town hall to be registered. She then consigned a wet-nurse living in or near the town to take the child and provide sustenance, for a monthly stipend paid by the town. If the child was near death when found, many midwives were authorized by the church to baptize the infant, 'so that its soul would not be lost'. Civil officials were often similarly authorized.

Also, after mmogno corrected my transcription I saw that the record stated Luigi found the baby "vicino la casa distinta col numero quattro ha trovato questo bambino". Doesn't this seem to possibly indicate a residence? However, Luigi's wife was a peasant as far as I can tell from their children's birth records, so it didn't seem to make sense for it to be their residence.

[rfiorille]

mmogno,

Thank you for the links. I will definitely check them out!

[erudita74]

"In smaller towns, the foundling wheel may have been in the wall of the residence of a local midwife."

Robert
I've been on the Coniglio website before, but obviously not since it's been revised and have never before seen the above statement. I've never seen this in any of my research about midwifery, and I've done a lot of research about midwifery in Europe and in Italy specificially. So this info is news to me, and I'll have to further research it.

As to the phrase-in the record it reads-

"nella ruota di ricevimento de proietti vicino la casa distinta col numero quattro ha trovato questo bambino"-

my understanding or translation is that "the wheel was located NEAR (not in) the house which was distinguished by the address #4."

I'm sorry, but I'm not a native Italian speaker, so I ask that one of the native Italian volunteers help us with an accurate translation, if mine is incorrect.

Erudita

[mmogno]

https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... 77#p239406

[rfiorille]

Erudita,

I wish the Coniglio website cited some source for the statement. It definitely warrants more research.

I feel the only way to understand where this wheel was located and therefore where Luigi found the baby would be to look at more records in the town.....


OR I can just wait for mmogno to help find other posts on the forum about the town of Popoli just like mine! Thank you mmogno! Another great find! This also gives a little more insight into another question I had which was whether a founding child, "adopted" in this sense of the word, would take on the name of their adopted family should they remain in Italy instead of emigrating. I have this feeling the taking on of the "adopted" family name was more likely to happen after immigrating to the US.

Wow. I'm just really grateful to everyone's help with this!