A monthly subsidy?

[George Sousa]

I ran across something that I don’t recall seeing before.

The following baptismal record https://culturacores.azores.gov.pt/biblioteca_digital/SMA-VP-ASSUNCAO-B-1865-1869/SMA-VP-ASSUNCAO-B-1865-1869_item1/index.html?page=28 (N. 54 Antonia) states in part “…E declarou Anna de Chaves, solteira, moradora da mesma Freguezia, que foi mandada pela Mãi da baptizada apresentar esta á Camara Municipal para lhe ser dado o subsidio mensal concedido por Lei as Mães, que quizerem crear os filhos naturaes por carencia de meios…”.

This roughly translates to “…And Anna de Chaves, single, residing in the same Parish, declared that she had been sent by the Mother of the baptized child to present her to the Municipal Council so that she might be given the monthly subsidy granted by Law to Mothers who wish to raise their natural children due to lack of means…”

I’m curious to know if others have run into this or similar situations in their research.

George

[Carlos Melo]

Hi George,

Foster mothers like Ana de Chaves received a stipend to raise children either assigned to them by the Council after having been "abandoned at the wheel" or given to them directly by the birth mothers. This was a long-standing practice. 

In this situation, though, the birth mother might have subsequently raised her own daughter once she sorted out her life. 

One of my ancestors was seen abandoning her daughter at a man's house by the priest. Even though she was from a different parish, the priest identified the mother, who married said man two years later.

Another ancestor of mine abandoned her daughter, who was baptised by her foster parents, but eventually raised her, as stated on a marginal annotation. And another marginal annotation identified her father because the mother barged in demanding that the priests identify her father before her daughter's wedding (the groom had the same name, Manuel Pacheco, his bride's father). 

The priests wrote down key information on marginal annotations.

Best regards,

Carlos

[Lisa Turrentine]

Interesting!  And this is why I’m always curious about what those tiny margin notes say.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 15, 2026, at 8:23 AM, Carlos Melo <chviei...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi George,

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[Karen Ramos]

"Historical abandonment of children in the Azores," Anthropologie et Prehistoire, 104, 1993 : 111-117. 

The following link takes you to a page to download the pdf.

https://repositorio.uac.pt/entities/publication/1bfd7f20-e00e-4d04-a23a-b3f0db2a5af1

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[George Sousa]

Thank you all!

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[Alan Francis]

George,

You have touched on a subject of great interest to me. My 2nd great grandfather, baptised in 1812 as Francisco da Câmara, was left at the Roda in Ponta Delgada in 1812. Others who are searching for their ancestors' baptismal records may not know that "exposto" baptismal records are listed separately in the back of the bapismo books. 

Besides my 2nd great grandfather's baptism record, I find no other information about him until he marries in 1834 in Ajuda da Bretanha.  I am curious if others have been able to find any records or information that pertains to their "exposto" ancestor's life or whereabouts such as who raised them, were they raised in an orphanage, etc. 

... and the search continues.

Alan Francis

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