Or occasionally I've heard about instances where for some reason the birth mother's sister (or other female relative or friend) took over the care of a baby (or small child) and put forth the story that that person was the real mother. Before there were laws about adoption in place, I think people swapped kids around informally quite often.
My mother, for instance (born 1903), was shipped off at the age of 8 to an aunt, and there seems to have been no more contact with the birth mother (and sister) after that, even though the aunt never formally adopted my mother and never was called her mother. No legal documents about this have ever turned up. My mother's mother had had two daughters, didn't want one of them apparently, and just sent my mother packing off on a train from Chicago to NY (by herself) to spend the rest of her childhood with the aunt.
Children got shipped around quite freely back in the day, I think--treated with very little regard for their own preferences. I've heard of others who got sent to some relative's farm so they could be extra hands there, and some were treated well but most weren't.
My mother, for instance (born 1903), was shipped off at the age of 8 to an aunt, and there seems to have been no more contact with the birth mother (and sister) after that, even though the aunt never formally adopted my mother and never was called her mother. No legal documents about this have ever turned up. My mother's mother had had two daughters, didn't want one of them apparently, and just sent my mother packing off on a train from Chicago to NY (by herself) to spend the rest of her childhood with the aunt.
Children got shipped around quite freely back in the day, I think--treated with very little regard for their own preferences. I've heard of others who got sent to some relative's farm so they could be extra hands there, and some were treated well but most weren't.
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