Did a woman die in the Lucca hospital after giving birth, March–April 1901?

Question: Pirro was born at 01:00 on 11 March 1901 in the maternity ward of the Regio Spedale di Lucca, to a mother who was not named. Is there a death in the Lucca civil register of a woman who died in the hospital soon afterwards, which might be his mother?

Short answer: No death act names childbirth. The register cannot answer the question by itself, because hospital death acts never state a cause of death. There are seven unmarried women of childbearing age who died in the hospital between 11 March and 30 April 1901. Any of them could be checked against the hospital’s own occulte (secret mothers) register, unit 4318 at the Archivio di Stato di Lucca.

What was searched

Source: Lucca civil register, deaths 1901, FamilySearch DGS 7125583. Every act was transcribed; the data is in transcription_data/ and on the site’s deaths table.

Section	Images	Acts	Dates registered	Content
Part I (ordinary)	1165–1205	225–388 (164 acts)	Mar–May 1901	Deaths at home, declared by family or neighbours
Part II (institutions)	1410–1437	87–218 (132 acts)	23 Feb–24 May 1901	Deaths in the Regio Spedale, the Fregionaia asylum and the prison. Each is written from the “avviso” (notice) of the hospital Superiore

• Part I: none of the 164 acts mentions childbirth. The only hospital death is act 292, Testa Adelaide, 74. The 13 women aged 14–50 (acts 226, 227, 232, 239, 274, 282, 311, 313, 334, 349, 363, 369, 380) all died at home.
• Part II: none of the 132 acts uses puerpera, parto, partoriente, maternità, occulta or gravida. The formula gives only name, age, occupation, residence, birthplace, parents and marital status. Cause of death is never written, so a woman who died of puerperal fever would look like any other patient.

Candidates: unmarried women of childbearing age who died in the Regio Spedale, 11 March to 30 April 1901

A mother who gave birth secretly in the hospital was usually unmarried and often from the countryside. Puerperal deaths mostly happened within about six weeks of the birth.

Act	Image	Name	Age	From	Died	Parents	Days after 11 Mar
144	1422	Fenili Giulia	38	Gragnano (Capannori), born there; “attendente a casa”	31 Mar, 01:00	fu Daniele and Ramacciotti Marianna	20
154	1424	Nutoni[?] Rommagina[?]	15	Lucca	5 Apr, 20:40	unknown parents: a foundling herself	25
157	1425	Borelli Teresa	40	Lucca, born there	7 Apr, 07:00	fu Francesco and fu F[?]ugli[?] Maria Domenica	27
163	1426	Baldassini[?] Giulia	28[?]	Petrosciana[?] (Molazzana[?], Garfagnana)	10 Apr, 20:00	Onorato and Galanti Domenica	30
177	1429	Severi[?] Maria	not stated	Montecatini[?] / Monterolini[?]	18 Apr, 09:30	fu Pasquale and fu N.N.	38
190	1431	Armani Assunta	17	Badia di Cantignano (Capannori)	24 Apr, 23:58	fu Giuseppe and Marconi Cesira	44
188	1431	Lucchesi Giulia	17	Castiglione (Massa Carrara)	26 Apr, 18:20	fu Raffaello and fu Lini[?] Margherita	46

The bold names are the strongest fits. They are unmarried, in their late 20s to 40, and died 3 to 4 weeks after the birth. That is the typical timing for puerperal fever. Act 144 was checked against the scan and reads as transcribed.

Married women who died in the hospital in the same weeks are listed in the deaths table. Examples are act 160, Del Soldato Adele, 40 (9 Apr), and act 194, Landucci Attilia, 24 (30 Apr). They are weaker candidates, because a married woman’s child would normally be registered under her husband’s name.

Caveats

• Nothing links any of these women to Pirro. They are leads only. Most hospital patients died of tuberculosis, pneumonia and similar illnesses.
• His mother may not have died at all. Many madri occulte left the hospital, and some stayed on as wet nurses (balie) in the brefotrofio. The family story of a nun raising him does not require the mother’s death.
• Readings marked [?] are uncertain. Ages and surnames in Part II are often hard to read.

How to test the leads

1. ASLu unit 4318, “Occulte dal 1879 al 1909” (see 01_italy_lucca/archivio_stato_lucca/inventory_1623/KEY_UNITS_occulte_4318_and_brefotrofio_4326.md). If the register lists women admitted to the maternity ward in early March 1901, compare those names with the table above. A match would be strong evidence.
2. The hospital’s own death registers or patient admission books (Regio Spedale, ASLu). These give the cause of death and the ward.
3. The births of the other March 1901 hospital foundlings (../birth_1901_lucca/other_hospital_foundlings_march_1901.md). If one of these women is the mother of a different foundling, that rules her out for Pirro.

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Source note: 02_italy_civil_records/deaths_1901_lucca/findings_hospital_deaths_March-April_1901.md