Those of you researching the more historically "Arbëresh" towns (Piana degli Albanese, Contessa Entellina, etc), can you give me a reasonable estimate about the incidence of "foundling" birth records? I.e. - Some, none at all, that kind of thing. It's my understanding that typical foundling names are Proietti, Trovato, D'Ignoti, Esposito and Di Gioia. (And various spellings thereof...) My mother's mother's mother's mother was a Trovato...but I know her father's name. I don't, as yet, know anything about HIS father (I'm having difficulty getting the civil records narrowed down, which reminds me, I need to make a post to soc.genealogy.italian...), but some other issues peripherally surrounding this research makes me wonder about the prevalance of foundlings in the Arbëresh community... The other question is, for those who have done research in traditionally *non* Arbëresh towns, what is the prevalence you are finding of emigration from the "strongholds" into the more "Italian" cities? I'm finding a lot of "Greco"'s in what is not generally know as an Arbëresh town, and yesterday ran across an "Albanese" in that town as well. My problem is (and has been for several years) that I can't figure out where they were before that town! Thanks! Diana Welborn (send email to dwelborn at texas dot net if you want to reply to me; this is my hotmail account set to exclusive) Researching: Grecco, Trovato, Capri, Barbagallo in Giarre area, and have temporarily postponed research on many others in Messina

Hi Diana I've done a lot of research in Basilicata, mostly in Tito and Picerno. In the earlier years [1809-1840] the foundling birth records were in with the regular births. After 1840, they are all grouped into the 'Part II' or Atti Diversi for the town, which also includes stillbirths and deaths of town residents who died in other locales. Tito's favorite surnames for these babies seems to be Belfiore, Fiore, Fortunato in earlier years. After 1840, I'm seeing Esposita [girls] and Esposito [boys] more and more. Almost all of them die as infants - I've only seen maybe one of them actually grow to adulthood and marry, in over 40 years of records. There are many Grieco families in town, which I believe may be their dialect spelling for Greco, because they seem to add "i's" into given and surnames with regularity - for example, they spell Angelo and Angela - Angiolo and Angiola. Grace Lancieri Olivo, [email protected] Editor, Comunes of Italy Magazine, [email protected] Co-Chairperson, OSIA Commission for Social Justice-New Jersey http://www.ItalianAncestry.com/coi http://www.ItalianAncestry.com/tito -----Original Message----- From: Diana Welborn [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 4:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Arbëresh foundling births and emigration? Those of you researching the more historically "Arbëresh" towns (Piana degli Albanese, Contessa Entellina, etc), can you give me a reasonable estimate about the incidence of "foundling" birth records? I.e. - Some, none at all, that kind of thing. It's my understanding that typical foundling names are Proietti, Trovato, D'Ignoti, Esposito and Di Gioia. (And various spellings thereof...) My mother's mother's mother's mother was a Trovato...but I know her father's name. I don't, as yet, know anything about HIS father (I'm having difficulty getting the civil records narrowed down, which reminds me, I need to make a post to soc.genealogy.italian...), but some other issues peripherally surrounding this research makes me wonder about the prevalance of foundlings in the Arbëresh community... The other question is, for those who have done research in traditionally *non* Arbëresh towns, what is the prevalence you are finding of emigration from the "strongholds" into the more "Italian" cities? I'm finding a lot of "Greco"'s in what is not generally know as an Arbëresh town, and yesterday ran across an "Albanese" in that town as well. My problem is (and has been for several years) that I can't figure out where they were before that town! Thanks! Diana Welborn (send email to dwelborn at texas dot net if you want to reply to me; this is my hotmail account set to exclusive) Researching: Grecco, Trovato, Capri, Barbagallo in Giarre area, and have temporarily postponed research on many others in Messina ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237