Help!

[kez_s]

Hi!

Can anyone help? I am trying to locate someone for a friend and I enjoy a challenge! I think I may have found him on the 1881 Census, his name is Harry Strickland born approx. 1878 in Ealing, Berkshire, he is listed with two other people called Hiscock and next to his name it says "Nurse Child".

Can anyone shed some light on what this would mean!

Any help would be really appreciated. Many thanks!

[brushbroomstick]

I have come across this in my own tree and I think "nurse child" is a child being looked after by a wetnurse. I may be wrong on that though.

Irene

[netgrrl79]

Yes, that's right - and just in case you didn't know, a wet nurse was someone who breastfed a baby when its mother was unable to - if she died in childbirth or shortly afterwards, or if she was suffering from mastitis for example.

Katie

[stanmapstone]

A nurse child is a young child being brought up in the household of someone other than the parents, normally for money, unless the couple are relatives kindly taking in a daughter's little error. Unmarried mothers, travellers like actors, people with demanding jobs in unhealthy areas (a pub say), or just parents of a child with health problems, might put a child out to nurse in a more country area, with a family.

It is worth bookmarking the RootsChat Reference Library
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/index.php

Nurse Child is at
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/reflib-lexicon.php?letter=N&lang=

Stan

[kez_s]

Thank you! That's helped me loads - his Mum was unmarried, I've found his birth entry and his baptism and his mother is listed as a single mother!

No idea if the family looking after him are related or not! Will perhaps see if I can figure that out!

Many, many thanks!