Massachusetts. Board of State Charities

The Board of State Charities and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state's charitable and correctional institutions. The Massachusetts Infant Asylum, founded by F.B. Sanborn among others, was a private institution incorporated in 1867 to house abandoned and destitute infants. Infants were admitted aged nine months and under, and were discharged at two years, unless health conditions warranted a longer stay. Per St 1870, c 136, the Board of State Charities was to be immediately notified when a child with no settlement in any municipality was taken in, and the board was authorized to remove the child, or to reimburse the asylum for its care at an established rate. To ease overcapacity at the asylum and increase life expectancy, St 1880, c 142 directed the Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in such cases to place state pauper infants out to board with families. The agent for the sick state poor within the Board of State Charities tracked and compiled information on infants, foundlings, and deserted children received at or being boarded out by the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, in order to properly identify those infants eligible for state reimbursement for their care. Attempts were made to identify and/or locate parents to determine if they could reclaim their children or be made responsible for their support, or to identify municipalities where the parents had settlement that should have responsibility for the support of the infants.

From the description of Massachusetts Infant Asylum case histories, 1871-1879 (bulk 1875-1879) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 319632752

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