nursechild

[benrymnd]

Could any one tell me what a nursechild is,on doing a search in the 1861 census my family turn up with father mother and children and a baby of 2 months old but with a different surname and under the heading where daughter/son would be is the term nursechild.
regards ray

[lizdb]

Often it is a baby to whom the wife is being a wet-nurse. Sometimes it is just a form of child-minding or fostering.

[behindthefrogs]

You find nurse children who are much older and it often does not imply that the woman is breast feeding the child.

They are sometimes orphans and sometimes the illegitimate children of the better off who were regarded as better off out of sight far away from home.

David   

[JAP]

Go to Berlin-Bob's RootsChat Lexicon of Genealogical Terms, Phrases and Abbreviations at:
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/index.php
and look up Nurse Child.

There is much information there.

Good luck,

JAP

[Maggie.]

Hi JAP,

Thanks for posting the link to the RootChat Reference Library - for some reason I have never found it  before  

I have now bookmarked it and will use

Maggie

[benrymnd]

thanks everyone for the replies.
ray