The Metropolitan City of Genoa originates directly from the former Province and manages the historical archive of the former Ippai, Istituto Provinciale per la Protezione e Assistenza dell’Infanzia, (Provincial Institute for the Protection and Assistance of Infantry). This institution, directed by the former Province, hosted local orphanages from 1873 till the 1970s-80s, since 1978 when the process of discontinuation started till completed, a decade later. This archive stores many sensitive documents collecting the personal information of those children, so people must observe rules and regulations about privacy. Furthermore, it has more than registers. There are miscellaneous documents and personal belongings that mothers gave to their children as an “identifying mark” to facilitate a possible later reunion.
The Archivio degli Esposti (Archive of Foundling Children) of the former Ippai, now the property of the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in Via Maggio in the neighbourhood of Quarto, hosts all related documents from 1806. From the XV° century till 1873, when the government founded the Ippai, the Pammatone Hospital and the Civil Hospitals of Genoa housed abandoned children. Structures called Ospizi degli Esposti (Foundling Children Hospices), managed by specific Commissions housed these orphans. These Commissions originated during the Republic of Genoa, kept through the French and the Sabaudian reigns.
For instance, in the prologue of the Organic Statute for the Hospice of the abandoned children of Genoa of 1873, the name of Ippai at birth, the author mentions these Foundling Children Hospices controlled by the Hospital of Pammatone, the most important nursing institution of Genoa: “On March 26th, 1496, Pope Alexander VI wrote an edict authorizing the collection of alms for the Hospital of Pammatone, who already managed the Institution that hosted and curated both illegitimate and legitimate children abandoned by their parents and who kept managing that service for years. Till the start of the XIX° century in Liguria, it was the only Institution present, so it hosted children from both sides of the region. But, when Liguria came under the government of French, the region was obliged to open two additional institutes in the two principal cities on the two sides of Genoa, one in Savona and the other one in La Spezia. [During] the Restoration these institutes multiplied (…) because King Charles Felice determined in 1822 (RR. PP of October 15th) that in each province should be a Foundling Children Hospice. So, in the cities of Chiavari and Albenga, two more institutes were founded. (…) Under French rule, the administration of orphans was up to the Commissions of Hospices, who had to manage both hospices and hospitals. (…) In those days, the administration of local hospitals still managed hospices, which had shared finances for a long time".
One of the most touching memories stored in the archive is the Ruota degli Esposti (baby hatch). It is a safe place among nunneries and orphanages where mothers could bring their babies, usually newborns, anonymously to entrust to their care.
Usually, those mothers who left their babies there were poor or sick young women who could not look after their children. Or else, these girls did not want to take care of these babies because that child was the “fruit of sin”, meaning the result of an extramarital affair or a rape. It often happened to slaves serving wealthy families.
Furthermore, there was no shortage of abandoned disabled children.
In the nineteenth century till 1865, babies left in Genoa’s baby hatches were located in Foundling Children Hospices managed by Civil Hospitals, controlled by the administration of the Pammatone Hospital. In 1865 a new law established that Provinces, local administrations inspired by French national administration, must manage orphans’ and mentals’ administrations. In 1873 the Province of Genoa founded the new Hospice for abandoned children located in the Conservatorium of Nostra Signora del Rifugio on Calvario Mountain. The local administration established that the Pammatone Hospital had to transfer “to the new Hospice the accountability, the registers, and personal belongings or identifying marks” of children. The previous administration of Foundling Children Hospices of Civil Hospitals (their archive is now in the administration offices of San Martino Hospital) retained these items. They complied, giving them all the documentation from 1852 to 1873.
In 1929 the Foundling Children Hospice changed its name to Befotrofio Provinciale (Provincial Orphanage). The Hospice of Chiavari closed as a consequence. In 1931, Gerolamo Gaslini, founder of the institute for nursing and support of children, the Province, the local Council, the University and Civil Hospitals founded an association. It stated that the Province had the autonomy of functions and assistance about nursing foundling children. Also, it established the construction of a new Orphanage in the Gaslini Hospital to comply with the obligation “to recover at the nearby department of Gaslini Hospital ill children housed at the local Orphanage ”. The relocation ended in 1938 when the local Orphanage changed its name to Istituto Provinciale per l’Infanzia (Provincial Institute for Infantry) or Ipi. In 1947 the association was dissolved, but Ipi stayed at the Gaslini Hospital for twenty more years, during which the local government paid a loan. The Ipi was renamed Ippai or Istituto Provinciale per la Protezione e Assistenza dell’Infanzia, (Provincial Institute for the Protection and Assistance of Infantry) in 1953. In 1967Ippai relocated to the new offices of Quarto, functioning up to 1978 when the government promulgated a new set of rules concerning infantry, family law, abortion, and schools. These new laws provoked the gradual closure of Ippai and the transition from assisted housing to family assistance as part of children's policies. Still, in 1976, there were 420 abandoned children hosted at the Ippai.
Ippai’s historical archive contains both objects and loads of registers where people wrote all the information about children housed there: time and day of birth, baptism day, time and date of leaving. In addition, there is a record of something unique that mothers did when they left children at the baby hatch: they left an object that was missing a part of it, half of a medal, one earring, a white cap without its tie, a rosary without its cross, in a closed cotton case with the hope that it would help find their child in the future. Even today, people from all over the world come to the archive to search for their origins.
For this reason, researchers, scientists and people looking for family heritage are interested in this specific archive. So, it requires the presence of strict rules at admission.
This archive observes general rules about documentary access (L. 241/90) and data protection (GDPR) and specific rules that control access to the information stored there. Some of that information requires a high level of conservation.
First of all, law 184/1983 establishes that a foster child can access information about his biological origins. Art. 28 subparagraph 5 stipulates that the adoptee can access information concerning his birth parents by formulating a request to the Juvenile Court of his town of living. He can do it at 25 years old (or when he comes to age if there are serious health reasons). This possibility does not work if the mother requests anonymous childbirth pursuant to article 30 of DPR n. 396/2000, formulating the request not to be registered on the act (subparagraph 7).
Article 93 of the “Privacy Code”, called after the modifications set by the D.lgs 101/2018, former d.lgs. 196/2003, establishes that at least 100 years passed before obtaining access to the birth certificate or the medical record filled with all the information about the mother that did not want to be registered.
D.lgs. 42/2004 “Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio” covers situations or data where this law does not apply. Article 122, subparagraph 1, sets rules to access documents stored in archives of public institutions:
...
- documents containing sensitive data or criminal records became accessible to the general public after 40 years; sensitive data are all those information about ethnicity, religion, philosophy, politics, the participation in trade unions or other types of associations;
- documents containing personal data about health, sexual preference or family issues became accessible to the general public after 70 years.
To this day, the Archive is in private properties of the branch offices of the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the neighbourhood of Quarto. Only three staff members responsible for the branch “archive/record” who manage requests for access, consulting documents and answer requesters respecting those laws can access those documents. Today, the majority of requests come from the Juvenile Court. The Juvenile Court receives requests from people who want information about their biological mother. On the other hand, they receive requests directly from people who live overseas and want to recreate their family heritage or from students and scientists.
The type of data and the state of conservation of old documents oblige special attention to manipulating them for research, consultation and moving to keep the integrity of the archive itself stated in articles 3, 29 and 30 of the d.lgs. 42/2004.
For these reasons, the Metropolitan City of Genoa restricted access only to qualified staff, as we said previously.