Hi, Miles, I sure can identify. I have numerous puzzling arrangements in my families. Though it doesn't directly relate to your search, you might like to know that odd makeshift arrangements for children do not seem to have been uncommon. I had a great-grandmother in Rutland who had become a widow and gone to work as a live-in servant in a hotel. She apparently couldn't take her five-year-old son into that situation and didn't leave him with any of her relatives as far as I can tell. She later married a widowed cousin of her first husband, so her first son became both the cousin and the half-brother of my grandfather. However, this first son never lived with the family. He showed up in Rutland at age 20, and I have no clue where he was living all his life. However, based on the next story in this e-mail, I think he might have been "adopted" and raised under a different surname before resuming his birth name as an adult. Another relative lost her daughter and "adopted" a child in place of her dead daughter. This child, as an adult, resumed her birth name. When I contacted a surviving relative of the birth family, an elderly younger sister of the "adopted" daughter, the lady became absolutely incensed at the idea that her sister was "adopted". There was never an adoption, she said, and basically hung up on me. I'm really sorry that I upset her. I had no idea anyone might react that way to the word "adoption" but evidently there is some sad story behind it. Good luck in your search. Cathy --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.672 / Virus Database: 434 - Release Date: 4/28/2004