Summer Reading - Poor and Pregnant in Paris

Still reading Rachel G. Fuchs, we suggest that, if you have an ancestor who was an unwed mother in Paris, you have a dip into the pages of Poor & Pregnant in Paris : Strategies for Survival in the Nineteenth Century.  As with Contested Paternity, by the same author, this is not genealogy but history, yet it is history, in English mind you, of an aspect of nineteenth century Parisian life that is poorly understood by most non-French genealogists. 

Fuchs has a fine, clear style, unencumbered by polemics or by the arrogant obfuscation so often present in the writing of those who do not have complete mastery of their subject, for mastery she indeed has. She leads the reader through explanations of laws that affected pregnant women and the poor, the changing social attitudes on morality and motherhood, governmental concerns about depopulation, charity, welfare, birth control, abortion, infanticide and child abandonment. Throughout the book, she uses examples of real women and children found in the Archives nationales, the Archives de l'Assistance publique and, especially, the Archives de Paris. 

In these archives, she has used the same resources as would the genealogist researching an ancestor who may have:

• been born in the Hôpital Port-Royal
• been accused of killing her child
• been accused of illegally abandoning her child
• been an abandoned child
• received a certificate from the town hall which would have permitted an application for assistance
• attended the Crèche Saint Ambroise
• been placed with a wet nurse

There are no lists of names of women or children, but Fuchs gives so many real cases as illustrations that there is a small possibility of finding one's ancestor in the lot. Even if not, it is an excellent starting point for understanding the historical context of such an ancestor and for preparing a research plan in this quite difficult area of French genealogy. The list of archival sources, including codes, given at the end is invaluable.

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. Click on the cover image in the panel to the right under "Books in English" to buy.

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Poor & Pregnant in Paris : Strategies for Survival in the Nineteenth Century

Rachel G. Fuchs

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 1992

ISBN 0-8135-1780-X

325 pages

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©2011 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy

Comments

[Anne]

Debbie,

You can find it via Abebooks.com for about 20 US dollars.

[Debbie Box]

Where can i buy copies of these books at a reasonable price. So far £189 is cheapest price I have seen for "Abandoned Children: Foundlings and Child Welfare in Nineteenth-Century France". I would love to get hold of a copy as my great great great grandfather was an "enfant abandonné" in Grasse and I really want to understand the context of his abandonment and what might have happened to him in the early years after he was found.

[Monsieur C.]

Rachel Ginnis Fuchs (b. 1939) has been writing on this and closely related topics for years. Two other books by her I own that you might enjoy are: « Abandoned Children: Foundlings and Child Welfare in Nineteenth-Century France ». Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984. ISBN 0-87395-748-2. 357 pp. (also in paperback); and recently « Gender and Poverty in Nineteenth-Century Europe ». New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-62102-X. 282 pp. (also in paperback) --- As you wrote, she gives wonderful insights and historical context to the events genealogists research daily, backed-up with lots of facts, tables, and charts. I hadn't previously been aware of this 1992 volume. Thanks for the post!