Presidental Families: George Washington

Fostering was the common practice in the colonial era, of taking in children of relatives who could not care for their offspring, or children who had been left orphans. Because of the unusually high birth and death rates of the period, many children were left with a single parent or no parent at all. In such cases relatives took in the children and raised them as their own, but without a formal adoption process. This custom was embraced in the George Washington and John Adams family.