Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Looked at it for a year, & didn't realize

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Looked at it for a year, & didn't realize

    that the nurse children in the home were significant.

    J B Mitchell & his wife, Annie (1861 census) -Old Ford Bow, Middlesex - have two children in their home.

    Annie's a "Nurse" - first & only time she was a nurse in the census.

    Two children in the home are "nurse children".

    I'm told the children were probably foundlings.

    Any suggestions for finding information about the arrangement? Anna & John are the people I'm interested in, so records that describe why/how the children came to them are sought.

  • #2
    I'm afraid it's very unlikely there'll be any records. As far as I know these were normally informal arrangements between families. The children may only have been staying there temporarily while their parents couldn't look after them for some reason.

    Comment


    • #3


      Finding your foundling I cant remember where I found this last week but it may help or may not with the foundlings.


      Edna

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks, Edna & Mary. I was told that there could be poor law union records about the Mitchells taking them in. I'm still hunting

        sarah

        Comment


        • #5
          If you read that through it will tell you how the records can be found.
          I found it on this board and it was a question about two baptisms, one for C of E and one for Non Com records for the same person found on Familysearch

          It says you can find the record of the parents and a token from the mother and there are records of the father in some cases.

          Worth a follow up

          Edna

          Comment


          • #6
            Yes, I did read the pamphlet, and it is interesting. I will probably try to find more about the children. But my interest is not with the children, but with the foster family. I'd like to find records about John & Annie, in hopes that they lead back to one of their biologic children, my possible ancestor.

            Comment


            • #7
              I'm not sure why you think these children must be foundlings. As Mary says, they are much more likely to be what we would now call foster children and any arrangements between foster family and biological family would be informal and unrecorded.

              OC

              Comment


              • #8
                I've had several nurse children who've turned out to be a relative of the householder. Some have been illegitimate and others the children of a widow.
                Both circumstances have led to the mother needing to work and so make some kind of childcare arrangement.

                Jay
                Janet in Yorkshire



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

                Comment


                • #9
                  A genealogist suggested it? The pamphlet mentions that foundling children "were despatched to wet or dry nurses in the Country". I haven't found any connections to Kent by this family. But yes, they may have been taking in the neighbors' kids, too.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I still reckon there were far more unofficial arrangements than there were foundling placements - many single mothers desperately tried to keep their children by arranging for them to be privately fostered but of course I'm not a genealogist, lol!

                    OC

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X