Was it normal for children to be adopted if their mother died?

[Comosus]

My GG Grandmother died when her son was 1 month old, and he was 'adopted', although he kept his surname so I suppose it wasn't technically an adoption.  What happened to babies who lost their mothers when young?  Did they have to be adopted by someone who could breastfeed them, or could they stay with their natural father and be fed on cows milk?  Or was it perhaps that the father had to go to work and couldn't look after the baby and needed a family to bring the child up?

Andrew

[linmey]

Not too sure how they got round the feeding problem but my great grandmother was `adopted` by her paternal aunt and uncle after her mother died and left several children. She kept her birth name as well, and is on the census as `neice of........` so it obviously wasnt a true adoption either! The aunt and uncle were childless so obviously offered, or were asked, to bring her up.

I have come across a couple of examples of this in my tree!

Linda.

[SamiW]

My GGrandfather appears on the 1871 census as a 5 year old 'Nurse Child', which I think is the equivalent of being fostered.  He was never formally adopted, and kept his original surname, although he stayed with the same family till he was adult.  However, I don't think there was a father in picture who might have kept him (assuming his mother died, and didn't just give him away).
So, I don't think 'adoption' was as strictly regulated as it is now!
Best
SamiW

[Dibley]

My father's mother died giving birth to his youngest sister and afterwards the children were looked after by an Aunt but eventually they were split up and put into separate orphanages as their father couldn't cope.  The youngest was adopted, my father stayed in Buckley Hall Home for Boys until he eventually moved to London and as for the eldest, through the Catholic Rescue Society, she went into Holly Mount Lodge just outside Manchester at the age of 14 (although most youngsters started work at this age then).  The story is that she was adopted and went to New York but I've never been able to trace her.  Adoptions before 1927 weren't regulated so many children were 'adopted', or taken into relatives' families.
Best wishes,
Lynne:)

[kooky]

In my Clulo family my great grandmother adopted a neighbour's baby, when his mother died, in 1895.
My ggg was a widow aged 45 and had 4 children. He was born Joseph Brown, was in 1901 census as that, but when he married in 1919 he was called Clulo. Caused me a lot of bother! Could not find his birth etc.
When I looked at 1891 census found the Browns next door and solved it
There were other sons. The father moved away with the eldest and a sister of the mother took the other one in.

[avm228]

Babies whose mothers couldn't breastfeed them (because they had died or for some other reason) were either farmed out to lactating women for breastfeeding or were fed on "pap" - a mixture of (usually) flour, bread and water, sometimes with other stuff mixed in.  This food was very bad for babies and contributed to high infant mortality rates.

http://www.babybottle-museum.co.uk/pap.htm

Widowed fathers often remarried very quickly, especially if they had young children who needed to be cared for.  Informal "adoption" by extended family members, friends or strangers was another possibility, though as has been said before there was no such thing as formal, regulated adoption in England and Wales before 1927.

Anna

[Koromo]

NZ brought in formal, legal adoptions in 1881. My grandmother died in 1914 leaving a 3½ year old and a 6 month baby who were both put into an orphanage and then adopted.

Grandfather married again very quickly ... and had more children. (Second wife didn't want the children from the first marriage!)

Cheers
Koromo

[stanmapstone]

In England and Wales prior to 1927 there was no formal adoption process, and the term "adopted" generally included fostering and guardianship. In many instances a child was simply "adopted" into the extended family or taken in by neighbours/family friends and brought up as a member of their own family. Occasionally it was arranged through a solicitor, doctor or charitable organisation but adoption was viewed as an essentially private arrangement between the parties concerned.


Stan

[aghadowey]

My grandfather's mother died about 5 weeks after he was born and as he was the youngest of 10 children the oldest brother and sister mainly raised him, and looked after several other siblings, even though their father didn't die until he was in his teens.