I am interested in references/cases (in the past? in the present?)of
widowed fathers who remarried and couldn't/wouldn't  burden their new
brides with  children from his former marriage.  Instead,  they placed
them with relatives or orphanages for an indeterminable time. This was
considered normal practice since people assumed fathers have the right
to "get on with their lives".  I found six  such biographical items
within my perfectly normal circle,  and would like to learn of
references, scholarly and literary, in order to write about it. Thank
you.

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Request for Question Clarification by revbrenda1st-ga on 14 Jan 2004 19:36 PST

Hi, carmi604,

Out of curiosity, and to enable researchers to address this question,
in which ethnic and/or social circles do your family travel?

"I found six such biographical items within my perfectly normal circle"

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Clarification of Question by carmi604-ga on 14 Jan 2004 22:49 PST

To revbrenda1st-ga.
These cases come from Central Europe , first part of last century. It
could narrow myexploration if I knew it only happened  in that part of
the world. By the way, I found on Google "Keeping the family tree
intact through kinship care" praising such arrangements and regretting
it's  diminishment,
http://library.adoption.com/Keeping-the-Family-Tree-Intact-Through...
But nowhere did I find the   r e a s o n  being father remarrying, o n
l y   motherlessness from various reasons.

Hmmm...It's certainly not common in my part of the world (western
U.S.); in fact, it was common for widowers to seek out a new wife
ASAP, so they'd have someone to care for their first wife's children.
And, going back 100 years, most children would have been living in
orphanages or outside their family circle if what you mention would
had been a common practice; few 19th century women survived a lifetime
of childbearing.

Just my 2 cents.

Kriswrite