Ancestors from Casacalenda : Guastaferri & Armanno

[littleapple]

Hello Romeo, I have some records for Bonefro Campobasso, I will see if the timeline matches and check, I try to get to the center once a week so I will look into it wednesdsay or thursday.
Melina

[romeo.guastaferri]

Thanks John

By the way, the wedding didn't take place in the US... My grandfather married my grandmother Mary Doucette (daughter of Joseph Doucet & Josephine Arseneau), in Bathurst, New-Brunswick, on March 24th 1917.

Romeo

[JohnArmellino]

Essgee...

Actually, I am not sure about where they are located. I looked for the birth of an individual in Piani Crati......an "Esposito"...and he was listed and I believe without parents. Somewhere else I did see a birth record where parents were not known...assumed this to be a foundling. But I cannot be sure it was in Casacalenda. Maybe Ripabottoni? Name was made up if I remember correctly.

I was researching the post-1865 birth records from Campobasso last week at my FHC and found the "birth" records of proietti recorded in Parte II of the Nati records. Perhaps Casacalenda followed a similar pattern. I will look for Giuseppe Armanno in the Campobasso records this week. I have seen a prioetto found in one comune placed with a couple from a different comune, although this was unusual. In this case, the fact that Maria Rosa del Cioppo originated in Campobasso and still had family there may have resulted her receiving a proietto from campobasso. However, I still suspect that Giuseppe Armanno was abandoned in Casacalenda.

[BillieDeKid]

John

Hope you don't mind - what are records of proietti/proietto? I'm new and would like to learn.

Thanks

Elizabeth

[JohnArmellino]

Hi Elizabeth -

Originating in 13th century and continuing through the 19th century, a system of infant abandonment was in place in Italy. It consisted of foundling homes, where infants could be abandoned anonymously, and a network of paid and unpaid wet nurses and foster families. The foundlings were called proietti and the foundling home the ruota di proietti. The present day Italian word proietti (sing: proietto) means "projectiles" or "missiles". However, in the past proietti could be translated as "foundlings" or "infants given up for adoption" – a meaning that dictionaries no longer mention. A ruota was a type of cabinet revolving on a pivot, used in cloistered convents to give or to receive things from the outside, sort of a turntable in a wall, constructed so that no one could see from whom things were passed. Hence the name ruota di proietti was given to the foundlings’ home. Some sources I have found state that the infants were actually passed into the home through such a turntable constructed into a door or wall. The infant was placed on a wheel [sometimes with identifying tokens in case the parent(s) wished to reclaim the child at a later date], spun into the building and a bell would be rung to alert the caregivers. This would preserve the parents' privacy. Other sources state that the child was passed through an open window and placed on a turntable and spun through a curtain instead. Other sources state that the name was figurative in nature and merely reflected the fact that the foundlings passed through the home rather than remain there.

Projetti is an archaic form of the word. What appears to be the letter j is actually a long i. [Although the modern Italian alphabet has no letter j as used in native terms, the letter j does appear in dictionaries for archaic spellings and foreign and international terms officially adopted in Italian.] In the 19th century and earlier, the long i was used in triphthongs or when the letter i was combined with other vowels to form one sound (e.g., proietto/projetto or gioiello/giojello). This sound is similar to the y in yellow or lawyer. The long i was sometimes used to denote this sound. It was also used as the plural for words ending in io (thus becoming ij) and for some, usually feminine, given names (e.g., Jolanda).

A proietto was arbitrarily assigned a given name and a surname by a civil official of the comune soon after his abandonment. It was not the surname of his father. The date of abandonment and the name given to the foundling were recorded in the Registri dello Stato Civile, together with an estimate of the foundling's age and the name of the wet nurse (and her husband) into whose care the foundling was given. In Campobasso, the principal area of my research, these records were recorded with the diversi records prior to 1866. After 1865, I believe they were recorded in parte II of the nati records. Other comuni might have had done it differently.

[BillieDeKid]

Thanks so much John. This is very interesting. Do you know how long the wet nurses and their husbands cared for the child?

Elizabeth

[JohnArmellino]

In Campobasso, it seems that the family of the wet nurse effectively raised the foundling. Occasionally, I have seen a child placed in the care of one family at birth, but in the care of a different family at death. However, this is unusual and may have been the result of the first wet nurse's inability for some reason to adequately nurse the child. Most death records indicate that the child was still in the care of the original family, whatever age the child might have been at death. Once an individual reached majority, his or her death record no longer named his wet nurse and her husband, but merely read genitori ignoti. There are other indications that a foundling remained with the original family throughout his or her upbringing. Sometimes the foundling was referred to by the family name rather than his or her assigned surname. Sometimes the foundling married within the adoptive family, as extended. In Guiseppe Armanno's case, there are many records that confirm the continuing relationship. On the other hand, I have occasionally seen cases where the wet nurse is a professional wet nurse, taking in many children, some at the same time. It is my understanding that this was more common in the urban areas, like Napoli, Milano, etc. In the hill country of Molise, professional wet nurses were the exception and most proietti were placed with ordinary families that oftentimes had just lost a natural child.

[BillieDeKid]

Thank you so much for your reponses John. Have a great Sunday.

Elizabeth

[JohnArmellino]

Romeo - I checked the birth records of Campobasso for the year 1897, but found no record for Giuseppe Armanno. I suspect that he was born in Casacalenda.

[romeo.guastaferri]

Thanks cuz !

I finally ordered the Casacalenda films this week (from the Church of LDS). In a couple of weeks or so, Essgee and/or myself (whoever receives the films first) should find out who my grandfather's real parents were (I hope).

[Essgee]

Romeo...

Keep your fingers crossed. Last week, one of the films I ordered showed up...but of Ripabottoni. So the other's can't be far behind. Sure hope it is soon...I orded these 3 films on June 1st. Some mix up occurred and I am still waiting........

If you get the film first, I think I will complain! (Not really)

Hang in there.

[Essgee]

FINALLY

Here it is...took a while to get it uploaded...I hope it is readable.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5782 ... nnonq6.jpg

The translation of this is beyond my capacity, so anyone who can, please jump in!


Just looked at it...will try and repost a better picture. My daughter may be able to make it more readable.
Back sometime this evening............sorry.

[romeo.guastaferri]

YOU WIN !

Still waiting for MY copy of the films... I was expecting them this week, but... whatever...

WOW ! Exciting news

Now I know for sure my grandfather was born Giuseppe Armanno... although that's pretty much all I can make out from the copy you posted. Can barely make out the letters... plus, I don't speak (or read) italian. Can you at least make out a date ? It might be helpful if you could post with a higher resolution..

But thanks a bunch, Essgee ! You've been an invaluable help thus far. Looking forward to deciphering that... baptism record, Essgee ? Is that what it is ?

[JohnArmellino]

I believe the record is dated 10 MAR 1897. If I read it correctly, Rosa del Cioppo, age 40, housewife, residing in Casacalenda, appeared before a delegate of the Mayor and stated that she found a male child, that appeared to be newly born, on via Napoli, near number 30. The Mayor's representative gave the child the name Guiseppe and the surname Armanno. There is a word before via Napoli that I can't make out --- that word probably modifies via Napoli in some way. I can't make out the rest of the record, except that two witnesses are named near the end of the record, Giuseppe de Marco and Luigi Mustillo.

Essgee, did you find this record in the Atti di Nato? Parte II?

[Essgee]

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/7099 ... nnowo0.jpg



This is from the Atti di Nato....but a supplement added at the end of all the enteries for the year, not in order of the date of the event.

Hope this makes it easier to read. Can click on image to make larger.

(Had this ordered on June 1 and it only showed up today...thought they were going to ban me from the center since I asked about it so often!)

John....thanks so much for the translation help. I know Romeo appreciates it... I certainly do.

Have a great one, both of you.......Susan