Several years ago, I read a book called
"Sacrificed for Honor" by David L. Kertzer
ISBN 0-8070-5604-9
It was all about how illegitimate births were handled in
Italy throughout history. I can't seem to locate it at
the moment - I'm sure it will turn up, then I can give
you the time frames. Anyway, in Italy, they had these
wheels at the entrance of the orphanage where the
mother or the midwife could put the baby anonymously.
This scheme was devised by the church to spare the
woman from embarrassment.
Since New France was a Catholic country, the original
question made me wonder what was the social attitude
about unwed mothers. Of course the circumstances in
New France were different in that the population was
smaller, and there probably weren't many people available
to adopt babies, and in the early years there weren't too
many women either!
Yes, a study of the census would probably be the place
to start.
Thanks for answering,
Lisa
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denis Beauregard" <denis.b-at-francogene.com@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.french
To: <gen-fr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: St-Jacques "unknown" parents
Le Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:42:28 -0500, "Lisa Le****e" <lle****e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
écrivait dans soc.genealogy.french:
>Re unwed mothers in New France.
>
>In general, did the women raise these children,
>or were the children put up for adoption or?
>
>I ask because in Italy, it was required that the women
>give these babies up for adoption. Also, this was
>done in France. So, I'm wondering if this was the
>rule in New France as well.
You can study the families in the censuses to find out.
There is only the 1744 census that would make the job for such
a study. In the 1666, 1667 and 1681 censuses, there are too many
recent immigrants and the population born in the colony is not yet
large enough. The 1760-1765 series has no children.
While the 1744 census is limited to Quebec city, it lists all the
children so you can see whenever a family has a mother and no father
if this corresponds to an unwed mother.
I have read somewhere that Tanguay had 1% of illegitimate children in
his dictionary and Jetté had 2%. I have not completed the linking of
all families nor the identification of all the natural children in my
own database so I can't make that computation. Perhaps, someone from
PRDH can make such a search. I presume their 1744 census is linked
to their individual database.
Denis
--
0 Denis Beauregard -
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