Found a "Nurse Child" Living with relatives. What does this mean?

Question

I have found a nurse child on census records (1901) with my Great Great Grandmother. Can someone tell me if there is a definitive answer as to what this means? Looking into it myself, I have found that the term can be used to refer to foster/adopted child to a type of longer term baby-sitting.

Also, should I include him in my family tree? He appears in the 1901 census aged 3 as a Nurse Child and in the 1911 census as a border?

 

Thanks all.

Answer 1

Old Occupation Names, entry for "Nurse Child." "A child being looked after by another family for payment."

One comment on RootsChat, "Nurse Child" by peterarkell* related the circumstance to the 19th centuryEnglish Poor Laws. peterarkell writes

Before the Elizabethan poorlaw was changed ... [the] care of illegitimate children and their mothers was haphazard. The ... poor law changed this and placed the responsibility on the mother [who may have been] unable to hold a job and to feed the infant.

One solution ... was the baby farmer [who] would for a small fee, offer to take care of the infant. As soon as the money stopped coming (or before), the infant would be starved to death or just dumped in a convenient place.

This procedure continued until the end of the century when horror stories in the newspapers, compelled the government to act.

 

http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/3015/how-might-a-nurse-child-have-been-placed-with-their-carers

 

 

Answer 2

Merriam-Webster defines a nurse-child as "a child under the care or supervision of a nurse", but I think in this context it means more likely somebody else's child raised in the family. Wikitree does not have a formal way of including adoptees.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adoptions_and_multiple_parents

gives some guidelines.

Comments

My guess it that this was a child who had a parent die or very ill.  Could be a relative of the family (maybe distant) or could even be a paying situation.  Often if the mother died, another woman who had a similar age child, and was still nursing, would act as "stand in" mother, a "wet nurse."  The year 1900 is a little late for this, but on the cusp.  Baby bottles with rubber nipples had been invented, but manufacture in bulk didn't start until about that time (1900).  This child was probably weaned at 3 yrs, but there was no day-care.  So if the father had died and the mother had to work, the baby was put with another family.

Did the "host family" also have a young child?  Curious now   Thanks!

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Hi Cynthia. Thanks for the answer and the interest. The information I have has Catherine Farrell as the Head of of the House (No record of her husband). She had 3 other children, the youngest being 6 years older then Denis Haydon (nurse child). It is entirely possible that, as you suggest, that this was a form of day cre.

I will keep digging and if I find anything else I'll post it.

Answer 3

I come across similar people in census records that I don't know what to do with.  I generally make a note on the bottom of the profile of the head of the household that this person from such and such census was in the household in such and such year.  Usually it is a servant or border or an unindentified cousin.  This sounds like it could be a child of a live-in health care worker.  If there is an older person, a new mother or if the family is in general wealthy this is rather normal.

Answer 4

A toddler. Still being nursed. It is still a common term. Another common term was " milch childe "  tied to " milch nurse ".  Many wealthy women did not nurse their own children , having a woman with a nursing child also nurse their own . A wet nurse.