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Why does this make me feel uneasy?

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  • Why does this make me feel uneasy?

    I didn't know whether this counts as a 'Research Q & A' or not, but decided to post it here rather than on General.
    I have just found a 2nd cousin 3 times removed (Olive Hannah Spreadbury) on the 1891 census. Her mother Rosetta (nee Tivers) died in 1883 aged 32 probably in childbirth as Olive's birth was registered the same quarter.

    In 1891 census Olive's siblings are living with their widowed grandmother, Hannah Tivers, in Weybridge, Surrey next door to their father and their eldest brother.
    Olive (aged 7) is living in Park Square East, Marylebone, listed as 'adopted daughter' of 70 year old William B Lewis (living on own means), his 41 year old Belgian born wife Alice, a sister-in-law Jane Bennett (born in Ireland) and lots of servants.

    Is this usual for 'adopted daughter' to appear on a census? As far as I can see so far there are no family connections to the 'adoptive' family.

    Why does it make me feel so uneasy for a 70 year old man with a wife 30 years younger and a houseful of servants to 'adopt' a small girl? Or am I just being silly?

    I'd like your opinions please.
    __________________
    Update: Olive is still with this family in 1901
    Last edited by LangleyValeSue; 11-09-10, 17:42.
    My avatar is my Great Grandmother Emma Gumbert

    Sue at Langley Vale

  • #2
    Could the young adopted daughter be the daughter of his 30 year younger wife and they have used 'adopted' instead of 'step' daughter?
    herky
    Researching - Trimmer (Farringdon), Noble & Taylor (Ross and Cromarty), Norris (Glasgow), McGilvray (Glasgow and Australia), Leck & Efford (Glasgow), Ferrett (Hampshire), Jenkins & Williams (Aberystwyth), Morton (Motherwell and Tipton), Barrowman (Glasgow), Lilley (Bromsgrove and Glasgow), Cresswell (England and Lanarkshire). Simpson, Morrow and Norris in Ireland. Thomas Price b c 1844 Scotland.

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    • #3
      Seems this was William's 2nd marriage, he and his first wife had no children on any previous census.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by herky View Post
        Could the young adopted daughter be the daughter of his 30 year younger wife and they have used 'adopted' instead of 'step' daughter?
        No Olive was definitely the daughter of one of my GG grandfather's nieces.

        I've never come across 'adopted daughter or son' listed as a relationship to the head of household before. Funnily enough though I've just found Olive's eldest sister Mary listed as 'adopted daughter' on 1901 census. In 1891 she was 14 and listed as 'second cousin' to the same family where the head was a 'lodging house keeper'. This was much closer to her home & birthplace in Weybridge though.
        My avatar is my Great Grandmother Emma Gumbert

        Sue at Langley Vale

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        • #5
          Thanks for that Jill. I was just about to look that up - you beat me to it :D
          My avatar is my Great Grandmother Emma Gumbert

          Sue at Langley Vale

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          • #6
            Originally posted by LangleyValeSue View Post
            I've never come across 'adopted daughter or son' listed as a relationship to the head of household before. Funnily enough though I've just found Olive's eldest sister Mary listed as 'adopted daughter' on 1901 census. In 1891 she was 14 and listed as 'second cousin' to the same family where the head was a 'lodging house keeper'. This was much closer to her home & birthplace in Weybridge though.
            I've seen one in 2 consecutive census returns - London born "adopted daughter" of a childless couple born Norfolk. They were in trade and then of independent means, so reasonably well off.
            Not part of my family, so haven't been prepared to shell out for certs. Feel she ought to be related in some way, but never managed to find a link - haven't bothered recently, as I now know the couple don't link with my lot at all.

            Jay
            Janet in Yorkshire



            Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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            • #7
              I've seen 'adopted child' on several censuses - although I couldn't pin point them now. I just took it as the head of household being a little pedantic and careful with the description. Maybe if there was a will it would uncover the history of the adoption?

              Anne

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              • #8
                my nannie adopted my oldest sister even though she was her grandaughter...when dad died we had to go probate my adopted sister was not counted as dads when we had to share his savings,but we shared it with her.so she will have been on cencus living with an older lady.but the census she would be on would be later than 1911.brenda xxx

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                • #9
                  On the 1901 census my grandmother was described as "adopted" to an apparently unrelated family (although as she later married into the family, they were already part of my research). Her parents died when she was very young.

                  This was a bit of a mystery for a while, but it later transpired that her adoptive "mother" was in fact her aunt, an elder sister of her father whom we had been unable to trace since her baptism. She had married using another surname and this had really led us up the garden path! So one can't always dismiss a family connection because of the word "adopted".

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                  • #10
                    I found an adopted daughter on the 1881 census, born Liverpool, living with an elderly couple in Devon. It took me nearly two years to work out the connection. They were her great Uncle and Great Aunt. Great Uncle was her grandmother's brother. Her sister was living with the grandparents in the same village. I went up a lot of blind alleys with this one!

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                    • #11
                      A further thought: adoption nowadays is an official procedure, but this was not the case back then of course. So I suspect the term would sometimes have been more loosely applied.

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