Hi Carol Custody then was a matter of who had the child, ie who was the stronger individual Adoption was not official until 1927, previous to that adoption and or fostering was a private affair Unless there was some action on the part of the mother or father through the courts, you are unlikely to find anything Children were often put out with relatives where the father had to work or the mother was not capable or around to look after them, but there are many scenarios Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 27/06/2016 13:59, Carol Wordingham via wrote: > This is not truly related to Norfolk alone but I wondered if anyone could > answer a query for me. My great grandfather seems to have had a > illegitimate son in 1885 -g-g-grandfather marries as a bachelor in 1887 > and again as a widower in 1890. My query is - would he have custody of the > son born 1885 if the mother was still alive. I have searched for a death > for her but found nothing. The surname of the wife in 1887 is not the > surname of the mother of the son born in 1885. The child is with my great > grandfather on census returns in 1891 and 1901. I seem to have been going > around in circles trying to work this out and thought it was time to try > the experts on the Norfolk Mailing List . Thank you in anticipation Carol