EVERYONES BEEN GOOD TO ME, ESPECIALLY THE DOGS - FOSTER-CHILDREN AND YOUNG PAUPERS IN 19TH-CENTURY SOUTHERN ICELAND

The present article seeks to establish the extent to which children and youth were fostered by persons other than natal parents in nineteenth-century southern Iceland. Furthermore, it attempts to compare the social position of foster-children with that of young paupers. The research focuses on the county of Arnessysla, using censuses, parish registers and catechetical registers to determine the number of foster-children and paupers under the age of 20 and to establish whether or not there were kinship ties between foster-children and the families with which they resided. It was found that between 9 and 14 per cent of those under the age of 20 were either foster-children or paupers according to the censuses of 1801, 1845, 1870 and 1901. Around 9 per cent of the age groups 5-9 and 10-14 years of age were registered as foster-children. Illegitimacy and poverty were the main reasons for children being raised by persons other than parents. Around 60 per cent of foster-children were fostered by close kin, grandparents or uncle/aunts. This points to their social position having been more favorable than that of young paupers who were often maltreated by their masters.