Genealogy Chat

Please help i am a little confused. When looking through my families census record in 1901 i came accross a child of 5 months who was classed as a 'boarder' under relation to head. He has a different surname to my family and doesn't reappear in any other records i have. In the early 1900's would the term boarder mean foster child?? I have found his birth record but unfortunately there is no mothers maiden name.

Any suggestions please???

He could possibly be a boarder and no relation to the family. Perhaps his mother was ill and your family were taking care of him while she recovered?

I found the same in my family today.

There is a child of 5 listed as a boarder with a different surname and in the next census is still with my family and now has their surname listed.

I would be keen to learn the answer and will keep looking for information.

Personally speaking I'd say he was a foster child, either placed with the family who then received money for aring for him, or he was already a member of the extended family - poss born to an unmarried mother. However, the birth record having no maiden name for the mother has thrown me. Do you mean no mother was listed at all? Or it simply looks like she was unmarried and therefore had no maiden name? If no mother was listed, the records office holds records of abandoned babies.

Do you have the birth certificate for the child?

Is it this which doesn't have the mothers maiden name on?

Following from TootyFruity - because if all you've found is the birth index, mothers surnames weren't recorded on those until 1911.

Ozi

Thank you all for brilliant responses. I am fairly new to tracing my family tree so am learning all the time. I will look into this a bit deeper.

Thanks again.

Re Workhouse boarding out.

I have had reason to search through the Admin/Discharge books for the Sheppey Union workhouse 1901 - 1920. There were several notes that different children under 10 were boarded to Mrs XXX at the Union's expense.

So PigletsPal is right in that possibility.

A couple of mine in 1851 were noted as Nursechild as they were being fostered with neighbours. Their mother had died and their father living a street away. As the youngest was 2, I doubt if he was in need of a wet nurse.

Many people get confused with the tems "wet nurse" and "nurse child".
A wet nurse was a mother who breast-fed another woman's child.
Nurse child, however, was just a foster child.
In this case, though, the child was just listed as a boarder which make me think the family were just taking care of the child on a temporary basis.