Re: 1911 Census Form Examples

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:54:19 +0000, Charles Ellson
<charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:01:11 -0000, "johnt" <trav126athotmaildotcom>
wrote:


"Guy Wilson" <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d_-dnYz6O721EO_UnZ2dnUVZ_r6dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:52:59 +0000, Mike Williams wrote:

Wasn't it who wrote:
Example forms are shown at
http://www.1911census.co.uk/content/default.aspx?r=24&111 and rather
poorer quality scans at http://www.1911census.org.uk/sched.htm The
latter gives the reverse of the form with householders' instructions. It
doesn't give any clues as to why my adoptee gm got entered as a "normal"
daughter, though (she was a "niece" under her birth surname in 1891,
"daughter" under her adopted one in 1901).

Adoption wasn't legally recognised at that time, so the census form
makes no mention of it.

I came across one 1911 census return, where one of the occupants was
listed as adopted. But it was "corrected" in red ink with the word
boarder. I assume the enumerator corrected the form if adoption was not
recognised?

Although adoption wasn't officially recognised it obviously was informally.
In 1901 my orphaned grandmother was with a family under her own name but the
relationship was " Adopted". She had been baptised at the Roman Catholic
Church and the family she was with a family who appeared to be recent
converts to RC as their children were baptised RC even though previously
baptised C of E , so I wonder if the local RC priest had a hand in this
informal adoption.

It is usually better to say that adoption "in its current form" did
not exist at that time. Taking on the responsibility for the
upbringing of another's child had always existed in some form and was
described as "adoption" in usual language. It was "officially
recognised" in the sense that it was not in itself unlawful and that
the court systems would deal with associated matters.

It would be equally true that the form of adoption invented in 1926 is
very different from either what existed earlier or what exists now.
Its main characteristic was the "clean break" principle. The
arrangement was secret; it was taken for granted that there would be
no further contact between the child and its natural parents forever
after; more often than not the child would never be told it had been
adopted. All this is now thought highly undesirable, which it probably
was, although no more so than the current over-emphasis on biology to
the virtual exclusion of all else.

--
Don Aitken
Mail to the From: address is not read.
To email me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com"
.

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