Adoption Question

[albadetamble]

Hi, everybody...I'm hoping that somebody has run across this rather baffling situation before.

I have an ancestor from New Pitsligo who was a married woman with two grown sons. When her youngest was about 18 she started adopting the illegitamate children from her oldest son's wife's side of the family. For instance, she took in little Alexander who was born to her daughter-in-law's cousin. This happened at least 2 times with various relatives of her daughter-in-law. Then it gets even more complicated--oldest bio son was illegitamate and she appears to have adopted someone from the absentee father's side!

She seems to have been good to them so I don't think it was a "baby farm" situation. One "son" named his child after her years later. She also took them to America to visit her oldest biological son in Vermont.

Was this common? Oldest son's wife had a huge family with a widespread geography. Why didn't one of them take the children? Also, one of the adopted children, who was born under his mother's surname, appears to have later taken his bio father's name--I know this can mean that his parents eventually married--but he never returned to live with them. Odd.

Has anyone got any ideas? This development was unexpected, to say the least.

[StewL]

Hello and Welcome to TS
You haven't included any timeframe for these "adoptions".
If it was before the introduction of the social welfare system. It would not be uncommon for unofficial arrangements to be made between families and those concerned. It is possible it would be informally arranged, perhaps with the blessing of the local kirk session.
Even after the introduction of the social welfare system, they may have been asked by those authorities if they would take the children in.
It is also possible that the one who took the womans name did so, as she was the only parent he knew, and considered himself part of that family.

[albadetamble]

Thank you for the reply! Here's a little more information.

My 3x great grandfather, George Mackie, and his wife, Mary, came to Vermont from New Pitsligo around 1871. That same year, George's mother, Anne Simpson--she had married a James Simpson 2 years after George's birth--took in Mary's cousin's child, Alexander Walker, who took the surname and forename of the father listed on the birth certificate. Alexander (senior) signed as informant along with baby's grandmother. The baby's mother, Mary Ann Jaffrey, Mary's cousin, died when he was born. If I were a betting woman, I'd say that Mary Ann and Alexander planned on marrying, precluded by her death. But Alexander, as I've said, did not raise the baby. Nor did anyone else from the sprawling Jaffrey or Scott (granny's maiden surname) families, who all lived in the same parish.

In 1880, she took in a boy who was born Robert Bruce, mother Ann Bruce, no father listed on birth certificate. On his death certificate, however, Robert's father is listed. He was a Robert Mackie. The fact that Ann was raising a Mackie child is puzzling to me because she never married George's father, John Mackie. George's stepfather, James Simpson, raised him from infancy and George named his firstborn after stepdad rather than bio father.

In 1886, she took in a girl who was born Maggie Ann Hall. Oddly, her name changes to Maggie Ann Greig for the 1891 census, then back to Hall in 1901. I'm quite sure it's the same girl.

The name game is driving me kind of crazy!

[nelmit]

Lots of women did this for a living. You can see in 1891 Anne had two boarders (who look like sisters) living with her. To save the children going in to the poorhouse they would be cared for by locals.

The parish would be paying Anne for the children's keep. Once a child reached working age the parish stopped paying but I've seen lots of cases where the children have lived with their 'adopted parents' for so long that they consider them their family.

I'm not sure if the records still exist but details would be recorded in the poorhouse minute book - in this case it would be Tyrie poorhouse as far as I can make out.

Regards,
Annette

[albadetamble]

Yes, that makes sense...when Alexander was born George was only beginning his career as a stonecutter and probably couldn't help his mother much financially. He and Mary had 2 toddlers of their own and were bound for America. By 1887, though, George had made quite a bit of money in the Granite business. He was the first scot to open a stoneshed in Barre, VT. George and Mary also returned to Scotland several times during that period. Perhaps Anne, whose second and last child was born when she was 21, simply wanted more children.

I'm in the process of tracking down the first adopted child, Alexander Walker, who was also a stonecutter. I know that he married a Jessie Fraser in Old Machar and traveled with her to Barre to visit George in 1896, along with their infant son, Anne, James Simpson, Maggie and Robert. Alexander and Jessie's second child was born in Barre during that visit. That was a birth certificate I was excited to find! It was a girl who was named after Anne Simpson. They all returned to Aberdeenshire, per the 1901 census, but I haven't had any luck finding Alexander and Jessie after that date. Perhaps they emigrated. They had at least 3 more children, one of whom was named George. I'm dying to find outwhat this kid's other forenames were but he too seems to have vanished after 1901. I've flushed a good amount of credits going through the OPRs for George Walkers born in 1900. No luck yet. I've been concentrating on the old Aberdeen area, where the family was recorded on the census shortly thereafter.

Robert, the second adopted boy, died of Pneumonia in Canada around 1926. I'm still working on the girl, Maggie.