In a message dated 2/7/2009 2:30:14 PM Eastern Standard Time, rpimen...@peoplepc.com writes: > Hello All > > > > Today I was looking at records from Sao Sebastiao Church in Ponta Delgada, > Sao Miguel. > > > > I looked at the years 1865-1869. I was looking for the birth of my great > grandmother. > > > > I have looked at many baptism records from other churches in Sao Miguel and > what I found unusual is the number of exposto’s in the records. With out > counting it seemed like there were five exposto’s for ever legitimate that > was > baptized. This causes me to consider a few questions. Is there a reason that > this particular church recorded so many exposto’s? Was there a roda that was > a favorite dropping off spot? Was there a large orphanage in Ponta Delgada? > > > > Buy the way I did find the baptism of my great grandmother confirming her > parents and grandparents. > > > > Rick > > > Dear Rick:
You will find that all of the Ponta Delgada churches seem to have a proportionally higher rate of foundlings than in the other churches. There were several convents in Ponta Delgada which were favorite dropping off places for unwanted children. The baptisms of these children were recorded in the churches of the parishes where these convents were located. Thus, the baptisms of children left in the roda of the Esperança convent were recorded in the S. José church. There were so many expostos in Ponta Delgada that their baptisms were recorded in a separate register rather than intermixed with all the other baptisms. I've often thought about these poor babies. They died at a disproportionately higher rate in an already high infant mortality rate. Without available nursiing mothers many died within days of birth in the convents themselves. Many others died within a year or two of being placed with foster parents. Since the death rate was disproprtionately higher, as a child social worker I hypothocize, that many were neglected. If you look ar some parish registers you will find that some foster couples seemed to lose infant foster children at an alarming rate and with alarming regularity. I've actually made a study of this. Those luck enough to survive infancy and early childhood faced varying fates. Some were hired out by their foster parents as indentured servants. Others remained with their foster parents as indentured servants until they became of age and married or fended for themselves. Others became a part of the family and when they married they are listed as "expostos from...fostered my Maria de Jesus, wife of whoever". In the birth records of their own children, rather than stating that the baptized are children of avós incognitos, the parents' foster parents are sometimes listed as grandparents, indicating to that these expostos were accepted as and took on the status of biological children. They were the luck one. Of all of my exposto ancestors, I have only one that I can't trace to a foster family: Rosa de Jesus, an exposta born about 1840 and baptized in S. Pedro-Ponta Delgada. She was married in Santo António on 27 May 1860 to António da Costa Medeiros (b. 10-June-1831 in Santo António além Capelas), son of Francisco da Costa Medeiros and Ana de Jesus Cabral, grandson of António da Costa Medeiros, Maria Rosa Botelho, José Cabral Oliveira and Maria de Jesus Viveiros. Regards, John Miranda Raposo --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to azores-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
