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Subject: [APG] Re: Term "Bound"
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 00:37:16 EDT

Young orphans were usually "bound out" to local families, expecially in rural
counties, but even in cities befdore orphanages became common in the late
18th century.

The records, if they surviived, will usually be found with records of the
local agency charged with resposnibility for the poor, the destitute and the
insane--poor commission, overseers of the poor, workhouse board, county home,
or whatever. In some jurisdictions, the same body had to approve older
childrens' indentures for apprenticeships to learn a trade, and they may be
found in the same book as the indentures for five-year-old orphans bound to
families as "apprentice farmers" or "apprentice servants," usually with a
condition for some instruction in the work involved, minimum school
attendance, food and clothing, and a new suit of clothes on reaching their
majority.

IInfant orphans were boarded with a wet-nurse, the cost charged to "outdoor
relief " (as contrasted with "indoor relief" in the poor-house), and for
which there are seldom records, but they were often "bound out" as soon as
they were weaned.

If your research ever takes you to such a volume, take a few minutes to read
some of the other records for a new perspective on what liife was like in the
good ol' days.

Donn Devine, CG, CGI
Wilmington DE

CG, Certified Genealogist, CGI, and Certified Genealogical Instructor are
service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under
license by certificants of the board after periodic competency evaluations,
and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.

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