Orphans No Longer

Back in October 2018, I wrote about three girls who had been sent to the Los Angeles Orphan Asylum - Isidora, Francisca and Filomena Campasano. At the time I wasn't sure how they fit into the family, but I had speculated they were daughters of Francisco "Frank" A. Campuzano. Last Friday, FamilySearch made a set of California records newly available for online research, including California County Birth & Death Records from 1800-1994 and California County Marriages 1850-1952 (published 5 January 2021). With these new records, I have been able to go back and clean up on the Campuzano line that moved to California, and uncover what happened to the girls sent to the orphan asylum.

In my previous post, I noted how Isidora was working as a cigar maker for R. Giovanetti in 1901. The new marriage and birth records confirmed that R. Giovanetti was the married name of Ramona Oropeza, Isidora's mother. Isidora's 1918 marriage record to Anton Surina lists her father as Frank Campuzano and mother as R. Oropeza. Digging through other marriage, newspaper and census records confirmed Ramona had later married Aladino Giovanetti.

FamilySearch, California Marriage Records. 10 July 1918.

Isidora was born on 20 March 1881 in Los Angeles. Frank was 22 at the time, and Ramona was about 17. It is unclear if they married, probably not given that Frank married Rosario Hinojosa on 7 July 1883. It looks like he and Ramona had another daughter in March 1884 - Francisca. I believe Frank and Ramona had their third daughter Filomena on 12 February 1886.

Frank and Ramona ultimately separated. By 1892, Ramona was in a relationship with Italian immigrant Aladino Giovanetti, and they had six children between 1892 and 1905. While I had previously thought Isidora, Francesca and Filomena had disappeared from the records, they were actually there all along under different names. In the 1900 US Census, they're listed in the household of Aladino and Ramona Giovanetti, living on Lemon Street. Aladino was working as a saloon keeper.

1900 US Census, Los Angeles, California.

There's much more on the three girls, as they lived for quite some time in Los Angeles after exiting the Orphan Asylum to return to their mother's household. I'm posting this here as I know we have an AncestryDNA match to Frank Campuzano through descendants of his family with wife Joaquina Contreras. It's possible there will be DNA matches to the Campuzano family through this side as well.

More to follow on this fascinating family.