Researching the last name, Azzurognolo

[RosePapa]

Hello everyone,

My great-grandfather was illegitimate and on his birth record his last name is Azzurognolo. I am interested in finding out more about this name and his family. Does anyone have any idea if this name is just made up or if it is actually a family name? Any info is helpful!

Thanks!

[darkerhorse]

Aristide is the only Azzurognolo found on Ancestry.com

[darkerhorse]

Google states it means "bluish". Maybe he was a "blue baby" with breathing difficulties when found.

[MarcuccioV]

According to gens.info, it is found in only one commune in Piemonte, so it is a rare surname indeed...

[mmogno]

Azzurrognolo 2r

[AngelaGrace56]

Hello everyone,

My great-grandfather was illegitimate and on his birth record his last name is Azzurognolo. I am interested in finding out more about this name and his family. Does anyone have any idea if this name is just made up or if it is actually a family name? Any info is helpful!

Thanks!

Related thread: https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... 00#p336700

Hi RosePapa

Let's have a look at your great-grandfather's birth record. Are you able to post the link to the online document please. That way we can see exactly what it says and whether/who your great-grandfather was assigned to for nourishment (wetnurse). Thanks.

In answer to your question, if the baby was of unknown parents, and left at a foundling home or wherever, then when the baby was registered, it was up to the official to name the child. The surname assigned (after a certain point in history) would generally have been a unique invented name. It seems to me that was the case with the surname Azzurrognolo, but we need to see the birth record to be certain. (Children born outside of marriage were not always foundlings.)

Angela

[RosePapa]

Hello everyone,

My great-grandfather was illegitimate and on his birth record his last name is Azzurognolo. I am interested in finding out more about this name and his family. Does anyone have any idea if this name is just made up or if it is actually a family name? Any info is helpful!

Thanks!

Related thread: https://www.italiangenealogy.com/forum/ ... 00#p336700

Hi RosePapa

Let's have a look at your great-grandfather's birth record. Are you able to post the link to the online document please. That way we can see exactly what it says and whether/who your great-grandfather was assigned to for nourishment (wetnurse). Thanks.

In answer to your question, if the baby was of unknown parents, and left at a foundling home or wherever, then when the baby was registered, it was up to the official to name the child. The surname assigned (after a certain point in history) would generally have been a unique invented name. It seems to me that was the case with the surname Azzurrognolo, but we need to see the birth record to be certain. (Children born outside of marriage were not always foundlings.)

Angela

Hi Angela,

Thanks for your response! Here is the link for the birth record. The link is for the full record book. For some reason a link to the single record won't work.

https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12 ... 98/Lzmg8oj

It is page 41 of the record. Numero 118.
I do know that his wetnurse's name was Elisabetta Papandrea, as she later adopted him.

Thanks for your help!

[AngelaGrace56]

@RosePapa

Great, thanks for posting the Birth Record. Your link took me straight there

As I read through the birth record I typed up what I was reading as follows:

Birth no 118 registered in Roccella Ionica (Reggio Calabria) on 2 June 1898 at 8.16 a.m.

The person registering the birth was Maria Addolorata Vitale, daughter of Nicola, 37 yo, weaver, living Roccella Ionica. She reported that at 11.30 pm on 1 June 1898, in the house in Strada Progresso, no number, from a woman who did not give consent to be named, was born a baby boy, who she presented to the official.

Then at the base of the record it basically says that the official was sending the baby to the Orphanage of Gerace via the declarant, to whom he also gave a copy of the birth record so that she could inform the Director of that orphanage. He also gave the declarant various objects that were found with the baby, some of which included a striped white band, three nappies, white cloth, shirt, white cap and a yellowish handkerchief with a yellow and black fainted edge. (So these items that were listed here would’ve been identifiers later on if the parents wanted to recognise the baby as their own.)

I don’t see the name Elisabetta Papandrea. Might she have actually been the baby’s mother and not been in a position at the time to keep him? What else do you know about her. Husband? Other children? Stillbirths? etc For her to have been a wet nurse she would’ve had to have had young children of her own. It just all seems to "neat" for me. The baby is registered as a Proietto (foundling) yet the exact time of birth is recorded and it doesn't say that the baby was found, so the person registering the birth must have also assisted with the birth? Interesting that you've never found any adoption records. If they did recognise him as their own later, and he took on their surname, then that should be noted somewhere.

Angela

[RosePapa]

Angela,

All I know of Elisabetta is that she was married to Giuseppe Papandrea and had at least one other boy. She had just gone through a stillbirth, so that was why she was able to be a wetnurse. Family stories are that she was given Amilcare to nurse and a few days later decided to adopt him. I do know that his biological father was some sort of wealthy business man in Roccella Ionica, but I can't find any leads as to his identity. I also have tried to find adoption records, but to my knowledge it seems that he just went by the Papandrea name. The only possibility I can think of is that it is listed on his baptismal record, but I can't find that anywhere.

RosePapa

[AngelaGrace56]

Hi RosePapa

I searched through the 1898 birth records of both Roccella Ionica and Gerace for the birth of a child born to Elisabetta and Giuseppe but nothing there. (Still births were generally recorded in Birth Register. I also checked the death records, just in case the town had made an error.) I also checked the marriage records in Gerace going back from 1898 inclusive to 1890 but nothing there. There was certainly evidence of the surname Papandrea, but as I don’t know Elisabetta’s surname couldn’t check that. Also, she may not have been born in Gerace, in which case the marriage would (generally) be in her birth town. It could also be that they were not married or that they were married after 1898 so you could check records after 1898 too. (I have to limit my time searching records at the moment because I’ve had a shoulder injury.)

It is interesting that information about the biological father is known but not the mother.

With Italian Civil Records, my understanding is that there were two copies kept. One copy was retained at the Town Hall, where the event was registered, and the other copy was sent to the State Archives. The civil records that we see on line at Family Search and Antenati site were filmed at the State Archives. If Amilcare was in fact adopted or a change of name had occurred, then it generally would have been noted on the birth record, and I guess also Draft Lists. My thinking is that possibly the Birth Record held at the State Archives might not have been annotated, whereas the Birth Record at the Town Hall was. What you might like to do is write to the town of Roccella Ionica and ask for a full copy of his birth record (“copia integrale dell’atto di nascita”) and see whether that has been annotated in any way. Try that first – you probably won’t need to pay for this? You could also write to the State Archives where they keep a list of all male babies born, in order of birth year (it’s a draft list) (Generally there will be a fee for this.)

Was he married in Italia or the US?

Best to you with this.

Angela