Genealogy Chat

Does anyone have any idea what it means on a census if it says 'Nurse Child' instead of 'Head' 'Wife' 'Son' or 'Daughter'?

Would it be a child the mother is nursing? The child is 8 months old and doesn't have the same family name.

A bit like Fostering today.

I'm sure there will be others who are able to give a more precise meaning but my understanding of the definition of 'Nurse child' is a child taken into the home of someone who cares for him/her as a result of circumstances that require the child's care away from his/her home.

Possibly the child was illegitimate or unwanted.

Thanks InspectorGreenPen - I hadn't thought of fostering but that could be right. He doesn't appear on the next census with them.

Thanks again

Hi Beverley

Have a look at this site , it suggests that the child was in the care of another but being paid to care for the child, so like being baby sat I guess.

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/n-o.html

simon

I agree with the others - it is the same as a foster child today.

Kath. x

Thanks for the link Simon. That's a useful site. I've saved it for later.

I think I'll check out what happened to him later - just out of interest.

My grandmother was a nursechild on the 1891 census . A lodger with the same family in 1901 and a servant in 1911.

Recent information from a cousin who knew my grandmother said she was raised by aunts. No connection so far as to how the 2 women she was living with are related.

I have grans birth and marriage cert. Father named on both but no sign of parents marriage or them on any census

I looked into my 'Nurse Child' and he was with another family as a 'visitor' then a seaman. It sounds to me as if he had no parents and made a life for himself at sea. Let's hope all went well for him there.