My father was 10 when his mother died in 1915. The state of Massachusetts made my grandfather split the children between relatives. The common thought at that time was that a father was not capable of raising young children alone, especially daughters. The day after grandmas' funeral two state workers showed up without notice to "help" grandpa make suitable arrangements. The eldest daughter (age 17) was allowed to stay and maintain her father's house. -----Original Message----- From: E.Sharp <bellemarco@hotmail.com> To: BOSTON-L@rootsweb.com <BOSTON-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:26 AM Subject: [BOSTON] Wayward Children >My mom and 3 of her sisters were sent to an orphanage in MA when their >mother died (1913) and their father thought he was unable to care for them - >he was not poor - not rich, but certainly not poor. He tried to find >someone in home to care for the girls but for some reason decided on the >orphanage. My mom was 11 at the time and the oldest. My grandfather >visited them and brought them home on Sunday to visit with their youngest >sister who was adopted by an aunt who was childless (lucky girl). I sent >for their records which only showed the dates they went in and came out 3 >years later and returned to live with their dad until they married. I guess >there were many reasons children were sent to orphanages. > >"E" > > >==== BOSTON Mailing List ==== >Boston's Freedom Trail: >http://www.ci.boston.ma.us/freedomtrail/bostoncommon.asp > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >