Looking for Di Mascio

[Mabeltown]

15 Sept 2024
Moderator comment:
two threads have now been merged.  This may result in some confusing non-sequiturs, but it may help prevent duplication or repetition of some information. 



My husbands mum was adopted and recently through DNA testing her adoptive parents look to be italian by the name of Di Mascio. As the adoption was pre 1926, and his mother was left on a church doorstep we have no records or living relatives who can provide any further information.  Does anyone have any links with this family name at all please.

[Gibel]

I would have thought that DNA would link your husband’s mother to her birth family rather than to her adoptive family.

Which country was your husband’s mother born and adopted in? I’m presuming England as you mention 1926 as when legal adoptions began.

Which town was the baby found in and which year?

Perhaps look for a Di Mascio family in the town where the baby was found?

[Mabeltown]

Thank you for your advice.  You are absolutely correct and my mistake - I should have put biological parents rather than adoptive parents.  We are not sure whether both were parents, or just the lady.

My husbands mother was born, we think, in Faversham, Kent.  Her adoptive parents also lived in Faversham Kent too, and all we know is that his mother was left on a church doorstep, so a foundling, and yet her adoptive parents took a train ride and got her from either a mother and baby home, or a childrens home.  It was always a topic that, if mentioned, was shut down, and so no one really knew any more than that.  There was talk of an indian father - but being italian and dark skinned, this could have been a presumption made at the time.

I have found and connected with a Di Mascio family who had an ice cream parlour in Gillingham which is very close to Faversham, and the family have been really helpful but do not know anything about a baby, so I was just trying to find out if anyone knew any more details on a baby being born and then subsequently adopted. 

The year was 1926.

Thank you for your advice - really appreciated.

[Mabeltown]

Moderator comment:
topics merged


I am trying to trace the biological mother of my mother-in-law ( deceased). She was a foundling born circa 1926. I cant find her birth
certificate registered under her adoptive name so i am assuming, rightly or wrongly, she was registered under a different name. Can anyone advise me how i could find her birth certificate or is this not possible? I dont want to keep looking if this isnt possible to find but surely she must have had a birth certificate. As you may guess, i am quite inexperienced at family history.

[Ladyhawk]

Do you know where she was born?

Does her death entry give her date of birth?

Don’t know if this article re finding adoption records may be of help
https://www.rootschat.com/links/01tea/

[Neale1961]

Looking at your other thread, I see the name you are looking for.
Have you considered this birth? June 1926

Di' Mascia    Louis A            mother - Smith   
Greenwich    1d   1360   


ADDED
Well, that's probably not right, as I see a death and another birth. Sept 1927
Di Mascia    C...... M              Mother - Smith               Greenwich

I think you need some more information to refine your search.

[CaroleW]

Connected post here

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=885526.msg7586675#msg7586675

Where was the mother & baby home - if her adoptive parents train ride took them to another county it's more likely she wasn't born in Kent.

I'm not conversant with the finer points of DNA but I thought DNA results would indicate whether the
Di Mascio side was her maternal or paternal line?

If paternal - you are less likely to find a birth under that name particularly if she was a foundling.

Also - depending on how old she was when abandoned - her birth may never have been registered - particularly if she was abandoned shortly after her birth

[Dundee]

If she was left on a doorstep then surely if she was registered at all it would just be as an unknown female child.  There was a time when the child would be given a name but I don't know if that would have been continued as late as the 1920s.  There is only one unknown female child registered in Kent 1925-1927.

Debra 

[Neale1961]

In your other thread you say the adoption was pre-1926.

So when exactly was she born? Does her death certifiate give her date of birth?

Where and when was she found? Do you have a mention in the newspaper?

Have you looked at birth registrations under the surname "Unknown"?
If I am looking at the correct De Mascio family, they are in Tunbridge Wells in 1939.