Are there adoption records for Orleans County, NY, in the 1860s/1870s?
I am looking for the daugher of George Iden (Family Tree link https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/2Z3C-RNC) and Evelyn Cugo who was probably adopted into another family as a young girl in the 1860s or 1870s.
According to the book "Sons and Daugthers of Randall Iden" found here:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066168303&view=1up&seq=54
on page 44, it says that George S. Iden had two children by his first wife, Evelyn Cugo; this would have been in the early 1860s. The son, William, is shown as living with George and his 2nd wife in 1880. I can't find the family in any census records from 1865-1875.
The book says that George and Evelyn also had a daughter, "Georgiana Iden, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Atwell, married a Mr. Allis."
The 1865 census would probably show the family together, but I went page-by-page in the 1865 NY census for Albion, Orleans, NY and didn't find them. I did find George's father there and an Atwell family that is a good candidate for the adoptive family, living without any children. I may have found George in 1870, living as a boarder, age 33, without a family, in Albion. I can't find Georgiana in any censuses as a young girl. I also can't find William before the 1880 census.
As I mentioned, there is an Atwell family living in Albion, NY, in 1865, and I found them again in Barre in 1870. They didn't have any children in either census. But in 1875, they had "Anna" as a daughter, showing as age 11. If she was their daughter, it seems she should have been in the other censuses.... And to top it off, this Anna later married Lucius Allis. So the names fit. Is this our Georgiana? Her page is here: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LV5R-KMG
Are there any resources for adoptions in NY at this time? I know that things were often pretty informal back then....
Risposte
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Thank you!! I hadn't seen those before. There's a will of the "would be" mother of the girl, Mary Atwell. She died when Anna was only 2 years old. She left a will, she must have been sick as it's dated just a few days before her death. She left her sister her bedding, and her husband most everything else, but no mention of leaving anything to her daughter, which I would think she would have if she was truly her daughter....
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Adoption records in New York are difficult to find. However, you may find some clues in the newspapers. Have you checked FultonNews at https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html ?
I have been trying to access this site for the last few days, but the site seems to be having some issues. It does at times, but it always seems to come back up again.
When I searched the names mentioned in your post, I found many articles with these names. It will take careful investigation to determine if the individuals referenced are the correct individuals.
I found an obit of a sister of a William Iden. Unfortunately, the site closed before I grabbed the url for the article. When fultonsearch.com or fultonhistory.com are back up, try searching for "Catherine E. Grone" (use the quote marks in the search) and see if the dates match up for this to be a sister of William.
There are several news articles about George Iden, including one when he was 63 and injured from an incident with a runaway horse. If this is the family that you are interested in, these articles may be of interest even if they don't provide clues about the adoption.
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Janell, do you have any other information about this adopted child? Or is the book that you mentioned your only reference?
Can you post a link to the will?
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Thanks! I do forget about that website, it's been a while, I'll check them out. That's not the right William, but I'll keep looking....
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That's the only thing I have that refers to Georgiana in the Iden family. My next step is to find Anna's death certificate, to see who she says are her parents. If it says Eli and Caroline, that would point to her being adopted since Eli was married to Mary when Anna was born.....
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As an update, I got Anna Atwell's death certificate. It shows she was born in 1863, to Eli Atwell and Carrie Culver. But...Eli was married to Mary in 1863. So I think this adds evidence to the idea that Eli and Carrie adopted Anna later. None of this is conclusive, but I think with everything else I am about as certain as I can be that Anna Atwell and Georgiana Iden are the same person. Thanks for your help!!
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This is an interesting piece of information. What month was Anna born? Anna could easily be a nickname for Georgiana.
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November, according to her death certificate. That's what I was thinking too.
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