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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Zaphod99 on Tuesday 15 April 25 10:02 BST (UK)
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Can anyone explain the phrase 'love only' in these two adverts, noticing that a small payment is also available. Was this a common phrase? This cutting is from 1939, London.
Zaph
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I think adopting for 'love only' would mean raising the child as your own, without payment.
The alternative would be like fostering where a contribution would be made towards the child's care.
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A History of Adoption in England and Wales 1850-1961 By Gill Rossini, published 2014 (seen at archive.org) only contains one instance of the phrase "love only" under a specific case which is used to contrast with cases of theft and trading in babies, and in passing defines it as "no money was to be exchanged".
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There is a saying "not for love nor money" - implying that the two were opposites. Usually in relation to goods, or services. As in "A good gardener is not to be had for love nor money."
Regards
Chas
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As these adverts were 1939 I am surprised by them - thought adoption became official and regulated in 1926. Does this imply that there were still adoptions that went under the radar?
Pheno
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Perhaps the process of finding prospective adoptive parents was unofficial (and might involve payment) but the subsequent finalisation of the adoption had to go through the official channels.
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Returning to the book that I referenced in reply #2 , apparently there was a Parliamentary Committee appointed in 1936 to look into adoption agencies, which led to the production of the Horsburgh Report.
It was found that informal adoption was still very much practised, despite the 1926 Act and the increasing popularity of legal adoption, and it is surprising to read that some adoptions arranged by adoption societies were in fact not legalised – in one society there was an instance of only 30% actually going through the courts, all the rest remained informal with all the disadvantages that entailed.
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Casting around to find the extent of the practice intrigued to note some appeared under the Column headed "Miscellaneous Wants".
Also spotted a court case where the adopter was advertising prepared to"adopt with payment" and a couple of weeks after receiving the child offering him/her for "adoption Love only".
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Thank you for these replies. They have been very informative. I am surprised I had never come across the expression before, being interested in family history, and also just generally browsing old newspapers, especially the small adverts. I hope this thread runs and runs.
Zaph
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Therefore when adoption queries post-1928 appear on here, we cannot assume they went through official procedure.
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Casting around to find the extent of the practice intrigued to note some appeared under the Column headed "Miscellaneous Wants".
Also spotted a court case where the adopter was advertising prepared to"adopt with payment" and a couple of weeks after receiving the child offering him/her for "adoption Love only".
When was that court case?
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If you have access to the British Newspaper Archives, there are some examples there. It does seem to be adoption or fostering was not to involve money changing hands. One story from 1917 involves a woman being charged for taking money to nurse the babies and then blackmailing the mothers. It mentioned an ad for a baby to be adopted for "love only". This was in a Woolwich, Kent paper.
I did a search with "love only, adoption" (search all words) and quite a few examples popped up.
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Casting around to find the extent of the practice intrigued to note some appeared under the Column headed "Miscellaneous Wants".
Also spotted a court case where the adopter was advertising prepared to"adopt with payment" and a couple of weeks after receiving the child offering him/her for "adoption Love only".
When was that court case?
As outlined at reply 11- Woolwich Gazette, 6 Nov 1917
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I doubt that an advert was involved in an example from my wife's tree, clarified recently. Her uncle had married in 1933 and a daughter arrived late in 1934. Both parents then decamped from Tyneside to London, leaving the child with mother's parents, who adopted her in 1945. The mother divorced and remarried (new husband could afford it, apparently) in 1951, then re-adopted the daughter just before her 19th birthday. Some unlucky people could be adopted more than once !