I haven't been paying real close attention to this thread, but I have one instance of an "orphan" in my family. It's in Alabama in the 1850s. The father died leaving his wife and "orphaned "children. Not having a father in Alabama (and other states in America) in the middle 1800s meant "orphaned."
As to this part of Grace CM's post: <<Was being divorced or abandoned such a stigma that the children would have been tainted in some way?>> Yes, being a child of divorced parents was a stigma. My dad's first cousin, born in the late 1930s, was the daughter of divorced parents. Some kids at school shunned her and would not play with her. This happened in southern California in the 1940s. I remember growing up in the 1970s and there was a foster home on the corner. My mother would not let us play with those kids. We were told that their parents were "jail birds" and that the kids would turn out like their parents (this might have been some weird mental thing my mom had about the house on the corner). By the time I was 11 or 12, I realized those kids were just like me and I remember being friends with a couple of them while they lived in that particular foster home. Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
