Education, Teaching, Libraries

Bishop, Bernice Pauahi (under Hawai'ian Royal Families)

The history of the royal dynasties of Hawai'i has been as tangled as that of many others. Until the early 19th century each island was ruled by its own dynasty, but Kamehameha the Great (17... [more]

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Bishop, Elizabeth

Bishop's father died when she was a baby. When she was five her mother was permanently hospitalized for mental illness and she never saw her again. She was then raised by her grandparents i... [more]

Brady, John Green

Brady was born in New York. His mother died when he was very young. His father remarried, but Brady seems to have been unhappy with his step-mother, and he ran away from home when he was ei... [more]

Brown, Leslie Calvin

Brown and his twin brother, born in a Miami ghetto, were adopted at six weeks of age by a single woman. He was hyperactive as a child and labeled a slow learner. After high school he bec... [more]

Brown, Mick

Brown's birth mother died of TB when he was a baby of seven months and he was informally fostered in Auckland by a white woman and her daughter, in a loving family. He knew his elderly birt... [more]

Bute, John Crichton-Stuart

The third Marquis of Bute succeeded to the title when he was a baby - his father died in 1848, leaving him the third richest person in Europe (later, as an adult, he was described as the ri... [more]

Carver, George Washington

Carver was born into slavery, to a "good" owner, Moses Carver; his mother was the only slave he had ever owned, and she was well-treated. His father, from a neighboring plantation... [more]

Clinton, William Jefferson

President Clinton's father was killed in a car accident shortly before he was born. His mother remarried in 1950 and he was adopted by his step-father. He was governor of Arkansas, and  US ... [more]

Commager, Henry Steele

Commager was orphaned as a child and raised by his mother's father in Toledo and Chicago. He became a famous college professor, teaching at New York University, Columbia University and A... [more]

Coombs, Herbert Cole (under Honorific Adoption)

It is not unusual for adults to be adopted as honorary members of a family, clan or tribe. There are two main types. One is the publicity-stunt adoption of politicians, usually western l... [more]