Both Parents Unable or Unwilling to Care for Child

Apess, William

Apess's parents were itinerant basket-makers and he lived as a young child mostly with his grandparents, who were very cruel to him. When his grandmother broke his arm he was rescued by an ... [more]

for California

Linkletter, Art

Linkletter was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He was abandoned by his parents as a child and adopted by an elderly couple who were itinerant evangelists. After several years they settled ... [more]

McQueen, Steve

Steve McQueen's father abandoned the family in Indiana when he was less than a year old. His mother then gave him into the care of an uncle, a farmer in Missouri, where he lived until he wa... [more]

Moses

According to the Bible (Exodus 1-2) Moses was fostered or adopted after his mother, Jochebed, placed him in a basket on the Nile (compare Maui and Romulus and Remus ) to escape an edict ... [more]

Nebuchadnezzar II

Nebuchadnezzar was King of Babylon from 605 to 562 BCE, succeeding his father, Nabopolassar. It was he who destroyed Jerusalem in 586 and forced the Jews into captivity in Babylon. He was a... [more]

Nelson, Willie

Nelson was abandoned by his mother when he was six months old. His father ran a pool hall in Austin, Texas, and he was raised by his grandparents in the village of Abbott, Texas. His grandf... [more]

Oedipus

Oedipus was the son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta. There was a prophecy that Laius would be killed by his own son, so the baby was abandoned on a mountainside to die. (This was ... [more]

Ruth, George Herman ("Babe")

Babe Ruth was the eldest of eight children born to a Baltimore bartender and his wife. They had no time for their son, and when he was seven they placed him in St. Mary's Industrial School ... [more]

Sanderson, Teresa Ione

Sanderson's father emigrated to England before she was born, and her mother followed him before she was a year old, leaving her and her sister to be raised by their grandmother in rural Jam... [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]