{"id":290993,"date":"2023-05-15T14:38:59","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T19:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=290993"},"modified":"2023-05-12T22:46:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T03:46:36","slug":"baby-box-great-grandfather-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/baby-box-great-grandfather-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"The original ‘baby box’ saved the great-grandfather of this famous actor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Actor Christoper Meloni appeared on a recent episode<\/a> of “Finding Your Roots” with ancestry expert Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. During the show, Meloni learned<\/a> shocking facts, including that his sixth great-grandfather had been abducted as a young teen in Massachusetts by Native Americans and was set free by Catholic priests in Canada before becoming a Catholic himself and starting a new life.<\/p>\n

But in an even earlier episode (seen in the video clip below), Meloni learned that his great-grandfather on his father’s side was saved as an infant by a church in Italy \u2014\u00a0in what appears to be the original “baby box.”<\/p>\n

Meloni’s great-grandfather Enrico was from a tiny town in Italy, but his parents were not listed on his marriage license, which led the “Finding Your Roots” team to delve deeper. Gates gave Meloni a document to read regarding Enrico.<\/p>\n

“Enrico, at birth, received from ‘the wheel,’ wrapped in swaddling clothes of cotton rags,” read Meloni, asking Gates, “Do you know what ‘received from the wheel means?'”<\/p>\n

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