Etta Bliss Merrick knew she was adopted, but not much about the circumstances of her adoption. 4 year old Etta was dropped off at the New England Home for Little Wanderers in Boston, Massachusetts by Sarah E. Dugan. Mrs. Dugan told the home that the child’s name was Mary Henrietta Blanchard, that her birthday was June 8, 1875, and that both of her parents were dead. This information came from a copy of Etta’s adoption paperwork (signed by her adopted father) and also seen by Etta’s daughter, Miriam Elizabeth Pomeroy (Personal Correspondence with MEP).
The New England Home for Little Wanderers was founded in 1865 to care for children who were orphaned or homeless after the Civil War. Children were not meant to live at the home, but to be there until new homes could be found for them (NEHLW History). The NEHLW participated in the Orphan Train until 1914, so Mary Henrietta was lucky that she was not sent out west on an adoption train (NEHLW History). Instead, on September 15, 1879, Mary Henrietta was adopted by John and Louise Bliss from nearby Amherst, Massachusetts. The couple renamed the child – she became Etta Louise Bliss.
Etta’s adopted mother, Louise Nash Bliss, was herself adopted (and that’s a different story). Etta grew up on the Bliss farm and lived in Amherst until her death in 1951. She always told her daughter she had a good life and had only vague memories of her life before the adoption. She never tried to find her birth family, although she was convinced that she had a birth sister (Personal Correspondence with MEP).
Using information from the adoption papers, Etta’s daughter Miriam was able to get a copy of her mother’s birth record. According to this record, Mary Henrietta was born on June 8, 1875 at 51 Austin, Boston, Massachusetts. Her birth parents were listed as Henry of Boston, a carpenter born in Nova Scotia. Her mother was Vilena, living in Boston and born in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The child’s surname was Blanchard. This information made it easy to locate Etta’s probable birth mother.
Vilena Blanchard died on April 25, 1879 at 80 Warren Street in Boston of heart disease. She was 24 years old and was single at the time of her death. The birth record does not indicate what Etta’s father’s surname name was. Sarah Blanchard Duggan was Vilena’s younger sister, so it was Mary Henrietta’s maternal aunt who took her to the Home for Little Wanderers orphanage after her mother’s death.
It’s impossible to know why the family gave Mary Henrietta up for adoption, but it’s possible to speculate. The family was working class – Vilena’s father, Benjamin, was a switch man on the railroad where he worked until he died in 1883. In 1870, the family (including most of the children) were living in Charlestown, MA. Two of the five children worked as bag makers. By 1876, the family had moved to Boston, and the following few years were disastrous. In 1877, Vilena’s mother, Mary Ann, died of heart disease. On April 2, 1879, Vilena’s 29 year old sister Abby died at home of Tuberculosis. Three weeks later, Vilena, Mary Henrietta’s mother, also died at home.
Mary Henrietta’s aunt, Sarah Blanchard Duggan,was recently married, and she and her husband, George, also lived at 80 Warren Street in Boston with the rest of the family. Sarah had lost her own 7 month old first-born child, William, (also born and died at the Warren Street house) in November of 1878. Within two years, Sarah had lost her mother, her first child and two of her sisters. She was expecting another child at the time of her sister’s death. Although it’s difficult for us to imagine how Sarah could take her four year old niece to an orphanage and leave her, it was not uncommon for families to send children to orphanages when they could not care for them due to financial or other overwhelming family circumstances.
DNA has not yielded any clues to the identity of Etta’s father yet. There are some mysteries to be solved. Vilena Blanchard was not living with her family in Charlestown in 1870. Where was she and would finding her provide a clue to the identity of Etta’s birth father? Sarah Blanchard Duggan’s husband, George, was from Nova Scotia. Was he somehow connected with Mary Henrietta’s birth father? More research may or may not reveal the answers to the rest of this story.
Henrietta “Etta” Blanchard Bliss Merrick Pomeroy (Merrick Tree – #3)
Sources:
The Home for Little Wanderers (NEHLW); History; retrieved 17 Mar 2020
Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988; Ancestry.com; Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; 2011; Provo, UT, USA; Ancestry.com
New England Home for Little Wanderers – Annual Reports; Volume 7, Parts 1872-1875; Retrieved from Google Books March 1, 2019 New England Home for Little Wanderers Annual Reports
Pomeroy, Miriam Elizabeth; Written Correspondence; 1985; Possession of LeeAnne McDermott