Adoption originated in Rome for the purpose of providing an heir to families without a male heir. Even with legalized adoption for this purpose, the adopted child continued to reside with the biological family and maintained the usual relationship with, and rights accorded biological children of, the biological family as well as the inheritance rights and responsibilities associated with membership in the adoptive family.

During and shortly after the Great Depression of 1929, agencies transported street children of large cities like New York, whose parents were financially unable to care for them, to foster-care-like families, mostly in the Midwest--a period that, because of the method of transporting them, became known as the period of the orphan trains. Although the purpose was usually to provide care in exchange for work by the children, some families adopted these children.

Following the period of the orphan trains, the adoption of children born to unmarried mothers became prevalent. Increased social freedom of adolescents and young adults occurred at a time when effective methods of preventing or terminating unwanted pregnancies were not yet available. Accompanying this relaxing of social norms were substantially increased numbers of pregnancies among unwed women. Social stigma surrounding these pregnancies and prohibition of governmental assistance to unmarried mothers left many women little choice but to relinquish their children for adoption. A private social welfare system for placing the children with more advantaged, mostly Caucasian married couples ensued, and adoption became an avenue to family formation for married couples for whom infertility prevented biological births. Children born out-of-wedlock to minority group mothers, particularly African American children, were generally informally adopted and raised by the mother's extended family.

Adoptions of infants born to unmarried mothers were generally closed and birth certificates changed to reflect the child's birth to the adoptive parents. Children were matched with adoptive parents according to race, religion, and physical features--all aimed at increasing the likelihood that children would look as if they were the biological children of the adoptive parents. European children orphaned in World War II also became a source of adoption for U.S. couples. For the first time, however, some children were placed with adoptive families who could not be matched on physical features (as in the case of orphaned children from Japan). The ending of the Korean War and the placement of large numbers of Korean War orphans with U.S. families further restricted the possibility of matching children and adoptive parents.

Bibliography:

1) Kreider, Rose M. 2003. Adopted Children and Stepchildren: 2000. Census Special Reports, CENSR-6RV. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved December 3, 2007.

2) McGowan, B. G. 2005. "Historical Evolution of Child Welfare Services." Pp. 10-46 in Child Welfare for the Twenty-first Century: A Handbook of Practices, Policies, and Programs, edited by G. P. Mallon and P. M. Hess. New York: Columbia University Press.

3) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children's Bureau. 2006. "AFCARS Report: Preliminary FY 2005 Estimates as of September 2006." Retrieved December 18, 2006.

4) U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs. "Immigrant Visas Issued to Orphans Coming to the U.S." Retrieved December 12, 2006.

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