I think sometimes we keep our modern notions of child-rearing when we look at census returns. For a start children of 11/12 were often working (my father was sent to the pit aged 12 in 1911). I have found in genealogy researches the following, all by no means uncommon:- children sent to grandparents or other relatives, children as lodgers near where they worked, children as female servants to a household, children as lodgers for the purposes of schooling. In most cases the parents were still alive. I have a family who lost both parents in their early 40s when the children were in some cases very small. The little ones were taken by various members of the family, one per household. In some cases the surname was different so if the record of relationship wasn't accurate, you would have struggled to understand why they were there. Finally one reason why this happened might be illustrated by another of father's memories. They had three bedrooms in their small terraced house and nine children. One went to father and mother. One went to a lodger (usually also a relative) and the children shared the other- boys at the bottom of the bed and girls at the top. Next door had 13 children, and one night father was in there playing, and got washed and undressed and put in their bed by mistake. His parents thought he'd been abducted but he thought one bed was much like another and it wouldn't matter! Best Wishes, Barbara