"Ruota degli Esposti"
The RUOTA (wheel) was a "drop-off” place for abandoned infants.This revolving basket was a device, usually made out of wood, divided into two independent parts by a little door. One of these parts was turned towards the street. The other was generally turned towards a church or a convent. From the street-side, a parent could leave their child to be cared for by the nuns and then ring a bell to let the nuns know that there was a child waiting for them. The wheel was turned and the child was taken into the church /orphanage.
Because of the state of absolute poverty in Italy & Sicily it was very difficult for families to take care of all of their children. They sometimes made the heart breaking decision to give these babies to the local churches. The same was usually done with illegitimate children. The nuns or priests named these children, but some were never given a surname at all. From there, most were given to a local “wet nurse” to be taken care of, but by the later part of the 19th century, most of these infants from Polizzi were sent to a foundling home n Palermo. The majority of them didn't survive for long, often dying before their 1st birthday. These "nutrice / wet nurses" were often paid a small stipend for this service. There were few married woman in Polizzi who didn't do this to subsidize their family income. Children who did survive infancy, either lived their childhood in an orphanage, or in some cases were taken in by families to be used as servants or laborers. In Polizzi it's my understanding that whatever orphanage was found in the village was closed sometime after the unification. But I may be wrong about that. Beginning in the mid 1870's, around the time that the use of the "ruoto" was beginning to be discontinued throughout Italy and Sicily, these children were usually taken by the midwife to a foundling home in Palermo. That was a long trip by mule cart !
Parents who left their child at this wheel often left something with the child that would enable them to identify that child in case they wanted to take the babies back sometime in the future. During the XVI century, the nuns began to record the date and the hour of the child's entrance. They also recorded the children's features and their distinguishing marks along with anything else that could be used for identification. These wheels were officially closed in 1875, but in Sicily especially, since Italy's unification didn't eradicate the poverty, their use continued. Where there were no longer any wheels, these babies were abandoned in the dark of night on the steps of the churches. In reading these records I’ve found any number of surnames given to these children….ranging from what we would consider normal Italian names to names such as Dormeinpace / sleep in peace, Fiore di amore / flower of love, to Brutefacca / ugly face and even giraffa / giraffe and Ippopatino / hipopotamus.
These abandoned children were referred to as a proietto / proietta. When we see the surnames Proietto, Esposito, Dignoti, Colombo, etc it's an indication that sometime in past generations there was an abandoned child. ( the surname Esposito is not seen in Polizzi) Many who read the microfilmed Italian civil records think that a child born to Incogniti Genitori /“unknown parents” was an illegitimate child… one born out of wedlock. This was often true. However, as I've said, sometimes an infant was left at the wheel because the parents just couldn’t afford to feed & clothe another child.
Especially in the late 1860’s & early 1870’s, parents sometimes lived together for many years without being married civilly at the local comune office. After the Unification when the government demanded that they be married civilly, couples “revolted”. There was a fee to marry which many couldn't afford. But more often than not, they refused to marry civilly in order to fight the regulations that the government tried to impose on them. In their eyes marriage in a church before a priest was all that was important. This wasn’t usually a problem until many years later. When a child born without the benefit of a civil marriage for his parents tried to claim an inheritance of land or a home or even sometimes money from his parents, he was considered illegitimate and therefore could not rightfully inherit from his family. For this reason, we find the marriage of couples years after they had children…. just to make things legal in the eyes of the government. In the Polizzi records there are sometimes notes written in the margin of birth records explaining that the parents did eventually marry.
In my own family I have a birth record for a child who was born to unknown parents and was given a name by the nuns. A handwritten note in the margin of that birth record states that his mother & father (giving their real names) acknowledged that he was their legal child by their marriage just 2 weeks after the birth. It states that they married because the father was in “imminent danger of dying”. And they knew that without this marriage their son would remain forever illegitimate and unable to inherit if there was anything. Ironically his father lived, they emigrated to the US and had 5 more children !!
It’s the interesting and often fun things you hopefully will learn about your ancestors while doing genealogy research that make it so very worthwhile. 6-20-2013
The RUOTA (wheel) was a "drop-off” place for abandoned infants.This revolving basket was a device, usually made out of wood, divided into two independent parts by a little door. One of these parts was turned towards the street. The other was generally turned towards a church or a convent. From the street-side, a parent could leave their child to be cared for by the nuns and then ring a bell to let the nuns know that there was a child waiting for them. The wheel was turned and the child was taken into the church /orphanage.
Because of the state of absolute poverty in Italy & Sicily it was very difficult for families to take care of all of their children. They sometimes made the heart breaking decision to give these babies to the local churches. The same was usually done with illegitimate children. The nuns or priests named these children, but some were never given a surname at all. From there, most were given to a local “wet nurse” to be taken care of, but by the later part of the 19th century, most of these infants from Polizzi were sent to a foundling home n Palermo. The majority of them didn't survive for long, often dying before their 1st birthday. These "nutrice / wet nurses" were often paid a small stipend for this service. There were few married woman in Polizzi who didn't do this to subsidize their family income. Children who did survive infancy, either lived their childhood in an orphanage, or in some cases were taken in by families to be used as servants or laborers. In Polizzi it's my understanding that whatever orphanage was found in the village was closed sometime after the unification. But I may be wrong about that. Beginning in the mid 1870's, around the time that the use of the "ruoto" was beginning to be discontinued throughout Italy and Sicily, these children were usually taken by the midwife to a foundling home in Palermo. That was a long trip by mule cart !
Parents who left their child at this wheel often left something with the child that would enable them to identify that child in case they wanted to take the babies back sometime in the future. During the XVI century, the nuns began to record the date and the hour of the child's entrance. They also recorded the children's features and their distinguishing marks along with anything else that could be used for identification. These wheels were officially closed in 1875, but in Sicily especially, since Italy's unification didn't eradicate the poverty, their use continued. Where there were no longer any wheels, these babies were abandoned in the dark of night on the steps of the churches. In reading these records I’ve found any number of surnames given to these children….ranging from what we would consider normal Italian names to names such as Dormeinpace / sleep in peace, Fiore di amore / flower of love, to Brutefacca / ugly face and even giraffa / giraffe and Ippopatino / hipopotamus.
These abandoned children were referred to as a proietto / proietta. When we see the surnames Proietto, Esposito, Dignoti, Colombo, etc it's an indication that sometime in past generations there was an abandoned child. ( the surname Esposito is not seen in Polizzi) Many who read the microfilmed Italian civil records think that a child born to Incogniti Genitori /“unknown parents” was an illegitimate child… one born out of wedlock. This was often true. However, as I've said, sometimes an infant was left at the wheel because the parents just couldn’t afford to feed & clothe another child.
Especially in the late 1860’s & early 1870’s, parents sometimes lived together for many years without being married civilly at the local comune office. After the Unification when the government demanded that they be married civilly, couples “revolted”. There was a fee to marry which many couldn't afford. But more often than not, they refused to marry civilly in order to fight the regulations that the government tried to impose on them. In their eyes marriage in a church before a priest was all that was important. This wasn’t usually a problem until many years later. When a child born without the benefit of a civil marriage for his parents tried to claim an inheritance of land or a home or even sometimes money from his parents, he was considered illegitimate and therefore could not rightfully inherit from his family. For this reason, we find the marriage of couples years after they had children…. just to make things legal in the eyes of the government. In the Polizzi records there are sometimes notes written in the margin of birth records explaining that the parents did eventually marry.
In my own family I have a birth record for a child who was born to unknown parents and was given a name by the nuns. A handwritten note in the margin of that birth record states that his mother & father (giving their real names) acknowledged that he was their legal child by their marriage just 2 weeks after the birth. It states that they married because the father was in “imminent danger of dying”. And they knew that without this marriage their son would remain forever illegitimate and unable to inherit if there was anything. Ironically his father lived, they emigrated to the US and had 5 more children !!
It’s the interesting and often fun things you hopefully will learn about your ancestors while doing genealogy research that make it so very worthwhile. 6-20-2013
