the wetnurse was,in all probability,not my grandmothers natural mother,but maybe an aunt or cousin or some other family member.but as i said,genealogy is not genetics,so theres no way to determine just what the connection is.

The difference between the definition of "genealogy" and "genetics ...

… but genetics is not genealogy. Genealogy is records, there is nothing in terms of DNA that can help you. In my opinion, too many people rely on DNA in their genealogy - they are two different things.

This statement needs some clarity. Although "genetics" and "genealogy" are not the same thing ...

Better reread Sacrificed for Honour. Many legitimate children were abandoned in the North as well as illegitmate ones and from my research I would say it was more harshly dealt with in the industrialized North. The whole point of the wheel was to protect the sinful woman's honour, never any mention ...

Livio, This was stated in a book called Sacrificed for Honour. I agree that this did not appear to happen in the former Regno delle due sicilie despite it being approved by law, however it appears to have been very common in North Italy.

With no disrespect to the author, this book makes some ...

But you see each situation was different in these cases of the illegitimate baby and not every time is it a dead end as you say. Sure, there were many babies simply abandoned or born in the ospizio where the names of the father and often too the mother were recorded "ignoti" and there is no other ...

Is very difficult to know more about the baby when the name of the mother and the father are not written unless you have some other evidences, or maybe some story from your family that can suggest to you the name of the mother. If you have nothing of these, then probably yes, you can find no more ...

In the situation of illegitimate child, when the father recognize the child as his own son, he go to the notary and make a formal act of recognition. On the margin of the original birth act, there will be some notation of the act of recognition. It was a formal process, the official in the town ...

The name on her birth act would be the official surname. For illegitimate child, the surname was probably fantasy surname given to the baby by the town official.

The births of foundling children are usually found with all the other birth acts for the town. If there are other records (like act of ...

When an illegitimate child was born in northern Italy in 1880 and given to another family, what, typically, do the birth records show as the parents' names? Would any records show the biological parents' names or not?

Every situation is different for the illegitimate child. Sometime the mother is ...

You are welcome. It is important to remember that these words that are written on the birth act, "figlio d'ignoti," "figlio di N.N.," etc., these are legal terms, because the mother choose not to recognize the baby on the birth act. It does not mean that the identity of the mother is truly "unknown ...

This was very common, if the parent are no married and the child is not recognized from father or mother when the birth act is written then the official in the town who makes the birth act, he will give a fantasy surname for the child. Is not truly to make "untraceable" because certainly the ...

What is the name of the town where your great-grandfather is born? Not the town where he is raise with the family, but the town where he is born. We can give you the contact informations if you tell us the name of the town.

I think probably these records are not online, most town in Italy do not ...

In genealogy searches, is very important to always work from known facts and work back in time. So for your purpose, what you must do to make a search of facts is contact the comune in the town of your great-grandfather birth and make request for his birth act (l'estratto dell'atto di nascita). This ...

I think probably your great-grandfather was a trovatello , a foundling baby born illegitimate. The records in Italy are all very complete, so to find informations about your great-grandfather, you must simply write to the comune where he was born and request l'estratto dell'atto di nascita (birth ...

There are many possibility, the baby can be born at the house of the mother from a midwife who bring the baby to the comune and declare the birth, the baby can be born at the orphanage and the official from the orphange bring the baby the the comune and declare the birth, the baby can be abandon at ...