Hi, There were some unmarried mothers' "Maternity Nursing Homes" as well. I caught a relative in such a place on the 1901 census (31 Sturrey Street, Poplar). Attitudes had changed significantly by the beginning of the 1900s, where as in the early-mid 1800s a third or more brides were pregnant when they got married, and quite a few only married when the second child was on it's way, this was now deemed to be no longer acceptable, especially in the growing middle class. There is a family story about a 3gt uncle of mine on discovering that one of his daughters was pregnant took her to a back street abortionist in London. This would have been @WW1. Strangely he was determined that none of his daughters would be allowed to marry. Best wishes, Dorri > Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:36:07 -0700 > From: cxndrw@yahoo.com > To: ENG-SURREY-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [SRY] A Question about Society in the early 1900's > > Further to your query about attitudes towards single mothers etc. > One possible way of hiding away an expectant single mother appears to have been to have them committed to a mental hospital. > > There were five such Hospitals in the Ewell area of Surrey, all built around 1900. It would seem that those unwanted by society somehow ended up in these establishments. > > People such as single mothers, epileptics, and victims of TB all seem to have been put away, some never to be let out! > > A.A Cox > Ewell, Surrey. > _________________________________________________________________ Use Hotmail to send and receive mail from your different email accounts. http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/167688463/direct/01/