Hi,

I'm wondering if it was a likely scenario for a first born child to be "informally adopted" if the mother died in child birth because a single father would not be able to look after a baby.

It appears that my G-G-G Grandmother (Ellen) died in childbirth with her first child in 1856. I cannot find what happened to the husband (John), who is the father of the child (Janet). John and Ellen were married a few years before. Janet is listed in Ellen's mother's will as being a daughter. As she is only 10 years younger than the youngest child, she could have fitted into the family almost seamlessly. Ellen is the daughter of Janet from a previous relationship, so in her husband (also John) will he lists three children in his will and Janet separately explaining the connection. It's been very difficult to unravel because multiple complex scenarios have caused use of different surnames at a number of different points in their life, which are not always a clear and true representation.

Does anyone know historically what would happened to families if a mother died in childbirth?