Birth Parent(s) Relinquished Child
Excludes traditional adoption and fostering
Campbell, Ben Nighthorse
Campbell is part Portuguese, Northern Cheyenne (and has been inducted into their council of chiefs) and possibly also Apache and Pueblo, a rancher and horse trainer, jewellery designer, jud... [more]
Faka'osilea, Lorris
Faka'osilea was born Lorris Bristow and given by her parents to her mother's childless sister and her husband to raise. She was brought up at Ngaruawahia, center of the Maori King Movement,... [more]
Fox, Ruth May
Fox was born to a married couple who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) five months after her birth. Her mother died in 1855 and her father was then sent... [more]
Garrison, William Lloyd
Garrison was born, his parents' fourth child, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His father deserted the family before he was three (he never saw him again) and after a few years, when his moth... [more]
Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa
Mbeki was the son of Xhosa ANC activists and teachers: his father, Govan Mbeki spent 24 years imprisoned with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. Knowing that they were likely to be arrested, ... [more]
Mikita, Stan
Mikita was born Stanislav Gvoth in Sokolce, Czechoslovakia (now in the Slovak Republic), but he was taken to Ontario, Canada to live by his childless aunt and uncle, who adopted him and a n... [more]
Seal
Seal was born to a Nigerian mother and Brazilian father in Kilburn, London. Both his parents were students with part-time jobs, and he was privately fostered with a white family with four b... [more]
Soll, Joe
Soll is an adoptee, psychotherapist specializing in abuse- and adoption-related issues, director of the Council for Equal Rights in Adoption and of Adoption Crossroads (an organization for ... [more]
Verdingkinder
The institution of Verdingkinder (meaning "earning children") in Switzerland dates to the early 19th century, although it has roots going back to before the Reformation, and it wa... [more]
Child Abandoned or Rejected by Birth Parent(s)
- Apess, William
- Baca, Jimmy Santiago
- Bartholomew, Freddie
- Capote, Truman
- Chanel, Gabrielle Bonheur
- Cornwell, Patricia
- Daniels, Faith
- de Porres, Martin
- Erichthonius
- Frampton, Phil
- Genet, Jean
- Haynes, Lemuel
- more
- more
Oblates, Dedicated to God
- Basavis (under Devadasi)
- Bede, the Venerable
- Bogams (under Devadasi)
- Dalai Lamas
- Devadasi
- Gertrude the Great
- God's Wife
- Heiric of Auxerre
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Jogatis (under Devadasi)
- Mary the Virgin
- Muralis (under Devadasi)
- more
Poverty
- Leitch, David
- Ahbez, Eden
- Best, James
- Bijani, Laden & Laleh
- Bird, A. John
- Brooks-Randolph, Angie
- Casals, Rosemary
- Chaplin, Charles Spencer
- Chaplin, Sydney
- Garrison, William Lloyd
- Geisha
- Hancock, John
- more
Unmarried Mother, Single Parent Unable to Cope
