Parents Married (or Partnered) to Each Other
- Antonius Pius (under Roman Empire)
- Augustus Caesar Octavius (under Roman Empire)
- Bálint, Lea
- Best, James
- Bijani, Laden & Laleh
- Carr, Harold Herbert
- Charbonneau, Jean Baptiste
- Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope
- Childebert II
- Chinese Qing Dynasty
- Christy, Hirini Whaanga
- de Rossi, Giovanni Battista
- Delamere, Paora Kingi
- Ellison, Edward Pohau
- Faka'osilea, Lorris
- Gaius Caligula (under Roman Empire)
- Gardiner, Wira
- Germanicus Julius Caesar (under Roman Empire)
- Goolagong-Cawley, Evonne Fay
- Griffis, Joseph
- Hadrian (under Roman Empire)
- Hakiwai, Reremoana
- Harrison, Pakariki
- Hawai'ian Royal Families
- Hura, Maata Te Reo
- Hyde, Orson
- India (Princely States)
- Ivan VI
- Iwasaki, Mineko (under Geisha)
- Joseph the Carpenter
- Kepler, Johannes
- Kinder der Landstraße
- Kiribati
- Laurent, Robert
- Little Richard
- Long Lance, Buffalo Child
- Lue Gim Gong
- Manuera, Eruera Riini
- Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa
- Melzi, Francesco
- Midas
- Mikita, Stan
- Nero Claudius Caesar (under Roman Empire)
- Norwegian Ruling Families
- Omahuru, Ngatau
- Perkins, Charles
- Perrott, Caroline
- Peter III
- Pomare Dynasty
- Poutu, Liana
- Presley, Priscilla Ann
- Rukupo, Raharui
- Schreiber, Lorna
- Schünemann-Pott, Friedrich
- Scipio Africanus Minor (under Roman Empire)
- Singh, Vishwanath Pratap
- Sykes, Annette
- Te Kurapa, Hikawera
- Te Wiata, Inia
- Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (under Roman Empire)
- Tito
- Tonore, Airini
- Tsuya-Giku (under Geisha)
- Both Parents Unable or Unwilling to Care for Child
- Parent(s) Died, Disappeared or Became Incapacitated
- Parent(s) Died, Disappeared or Became Incapacitated
Antonius Pius (under Roman Empire)
Ancient Roman society institutionalized the adoption of adults. It was relatively common for a wealthy Roman couple to adopt an adult man, even a slave, as heir if they did not have any son... [more]
Augustus Caesar Octavius (under Roman Empire)
Ancient Roman society institutionalized the adoption of adults. It was relatively common for a wealthy Roman couple to adopt an adult man, even a slave, as heir if they did not have any son... [more]
Bálint, Lea
Balint spent part of World War II living under an assumed name in a Polish convent in Brwinow, near Warsaw. Her parents placed her there when she was five and she emerged at the end of the ... [more]
Best, James
Best was born Jules Guy in Powderly, Kentucky, to a poor coal mining family with six children. When he was three poverty forced the family to place him in an orphanage, but he was adopted t... [more]
Bijani, Laden & Laleh
Laden and Laleh Bijani were born joined at the head, to a poor farming family in Shiraz, Iran. The family had 11 children and were unable to care for them. They remained in hospital for som... [more]
Carr, Harold Herbert
Carr was born to Elizabeth (Irish-Maori) and Herbert Williams (Welsh), but soon afterwards he was given to his mother's sister and her husband as a tamaiti whangai. His mothers were from an ... [more]
Charbonneau, Jean Baptiste
Charbonneau was the son of a French-Canadian guide and his wife, the famous Sacagawea , both hired as interpreters for the Lewis and Clark expedition to the American West, and was born at ... [more]
Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope
Stanhope was the distant cousin and godson of Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), the author of Letters to His Son (1774) and Letters to His Godson (1790). When... [more]
Childebert II
Childebert was the son of King Sigibert I and Brunhilde. In the chaos of sixth-century France, Sigibert and his brothers, Gontran (Guntram), king of Burgundy, and Chilpéric, king of Soisson... [more]
Chinese Qing Dynasty
For nearly 200 years the Qing dynasty practiced a form of adoption to secure orderly succession to the throne when the emperor was childless. It was instituted by the Yong Zheng Empero... [more]
