Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace.

Most unmarried mothers had no choice but to give up their babies. If they came from “good” families they would be thrown out and if from poor families they had to work for their living.
I saw an ancient old woman on television years ago talking about giving up her baby for adoption seventy years before. She cried and said she remembered her baby every day.

I won't watch the programme as I know 2 foundlings and know from what they have told me how painful and confusing it is to them ?

I expect the children had better lives away from biological parents like that.

I really enjoyed the first programme even though it made me cry.
Looking forward to tonight's episode - I watch it the next morning because I know I am going to cry and would rather do it on my own!

I was expecting the father to be Catholic and therefore not able to divorce - but he wasn't! I know there would still have been some difficulty as they were different religions.

My thoughts as well Gillybob.

Anyone who knew him will now recognise him from the descriptions and the photo.

Didn’t realise there was a dedicated thread to LLF so posted on the TV thread initially .

I couldn’t help but feel a kind of hatred towards their father who had 14 children with his wife and yet it seems wouldn’t allow the mother to keep her precious babies, probably for the fear of being caught . Poor woman .

He wanted his cake and eat it and boy did he eat some cake !

That’s sad Paddyanne

‘Nobody’s face’ and ‘Nobody’s name’.

You cannot imagine feeling that when you see family members, and know who you look like, and see family mannerisms.

I watched and had me weeping, my heart went out to the 'foundlings'. So very sad and somehow I always think of these unmarried mothers who gave their babies up. Think I would have put a wedding ring on, said I was a widow and kept my child and moved to a different part of the country. But life isn't always that simple and may not have had the support emotionally or financially from the father. A similar thing happened in my family and I have felt anger at times at this was the outcome to my relative and she felt total rejection and with maturity I now understand the quirks of her personality. A mother's love is everything to a child.
Thank goodness it doesn't matter anymore if you are married or not, or one is a Catholic or Protestant but life wasn't the same back then and ideas were so very different.

you should get Mary Gaulthiers CD called Foundling .Its a personal account of her life as a foundling.Theres a song in it that says she has Nobody's face and nobody's name which is something I hadn't thought of before I bought the album.Theres also one where she found her birth mother and called her,to be told she couldn't acknowledge her as none of her family knew Mary existed.Its heartbreaking .Rejected twice .I watched last nights programme and yes I cried ,you wonder how any mother can walk away form a baby .