Brenda, We could help you more if we had some names and if possible, dates and places of birth - Some of us have extensive collections of information and records we could search if we knew the names of those you are looking for. As a general rule no man could look after a houseful of children and still attend to his business - they needed to be kept clean, their clothes and his needed to be washed, mended and food had to be prepared, canning and preserving done, ill family members had to be cared for, there was sewing, housework, milking, feeding the stock and the chickens, pigs etc. there was no way a man could do all of that and the thousands of other chores he depended upon his wife to do. It was a full time job for a woman and doubly so for a man, in those days. The corner grocery did not exist in rural Carolina (or rural anywhere else), store bought clothes were a rare thing, and if you wanted chicken for dinner you started with a live bird, feathers and all, which had to be carefully chosen from among the brood lest you eat one of your best layers. Alas, one did not yank it ready to cook, out of the freezer. And we call those the "good old days" when life was simpler and carefree!! As a consequence a man and often a woman, needed to find a better place for the children to live, usually among friends and neighbors, sometimes the courts were involved, sometimes not. Often the children were simply "taken-in" by various family members, close friends, and others who had the room and would welcome an extra pair of hands. Sometimes it turned out that they became a sort of "slave-labor". Perhaps none of this is news to you - if so I apologize for getting on my soap box......... Agnes E. Cloninger >From: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: [CATAWBA-WEST] Foster Children and Adoptions >I need help figuring out where to look for some records on my grandmother's >family. This area of my research has been frustrating me recently. > >Here's the situation. My grandmother's mother died in 1895 in Alexander Co. >NC, leaving a husband and 7 children. For whatever reason, the husband was >not able to continue to care for the children. The older ones were placed on >farms as workers. Three of the younger ones were placed in families as >"foster" children. And one was formally adopted. -----SNIP----