Genealogy Chat

I have on the 1881 finally tracked down my Smiths!! Sadly, mum is a widow (just my luck!!!). There are 3 kids age 17, 13 and 10 all sons and the fourth child age 6, is also a Smith - but realtionship says "Kept child". What does this mean please because I would have assumed, that had it been a relative it would have said something like nephew!! ??? Thanks. Gaynor

Only a thought but could it have been just a child who had been farmed out to her?Women often took in other peoples children for a small income.Of course it could've been a relation's child i.e brother in law's son would just be too much for the enumerator to write.There seem to have been no hard and fast rules as to what relationship was stated.I've got daughters who were daughter in law and no end of visitors.

If you found the family on the LDS index rather than the original image its also possible that the child was a foster child and wasn't a Smith at all, I've found a couple of families where the transcribers just gave everyone in the household the same surname even though on the original they are clearly under different names - presumably they just got used to seeing ditto and didn't read along the line properly.

Janet and Judith Thank you very much for your replies - foodo for thought. Gaynor

I have a kept child too in 1871. She was living with her (wait for it) deceased father's sister's husband's brother's married daughter!!! I think it was too complicated for the ennumerator. Her mother was alive and well with new hubby and new kids. Maz. XX

Does anyone now why children would be "boarders"with a family-is it the same thing? I`ve got a relative I can`t find in 1881 census as her children were boarders. Rosalyn

Fairly certain a boarder would be the same thing.I hope that your children were boarding with someone who cared for them rather than just doing it for the money.

I hope they were-3 were with the grandparents and 2 with ?relatives or friends but as I said can`t find parents anywhere in Scotlandand I don`t know where to look in England Some people have tried for me -but no luck! Rosalyn

I have a child in the 1901 census who is living with her maternal grandparents and she is listed as a boarder, not as a grandchild Her father (widower) and her brother are listed at a different address. So is this the reason she is down as a boarder? Bren

A child described as a boarder was a foster child- usually somebody was paying for their upkeep. Often they were illegitimate children, and their birth mothers would work and send some of their earnings to pay for them. It was not necessarily as grim as it sounds though, my grandmother was a boarder with two unmarried sisters, she stayed with them until she was an adult, then ended up marrying their nephew- they met whilst he was visiting his aunts. So in the end she really did become family to these two women who had loved and cared for her all her life!!!

Ann How heart-warming - sounds like a Disney movie! Helen

That`s making my puzzle more intriguing-as their parents were married but i can`t find them anywhere. Rosalyn

My Father was given to a family to be brought up by them in 1913. His parents were touring actors and possibly thought he would be better off in a secure place.I have found his sister was also "fostered" to a family who were paid money to bring her up. They must have been hard times,but both children never felt they really belonged and sadly they never ever met each other.I feel I must learn of their history but cannot find any info.about my grandparents on any census. Kept child sounds so sad to me.

Today I read an entry for a "Nurse child" who presumably was at first "wet-nursed",but at age 2 the child was shown with no family relationship to either of the 2 unmarried women she had been placed with !! Mary