Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

"pour l'usage des Nourrices seulement"

English translation:

For the wet nurse's use only

Added to glossary by Anna Maria Augustine (X)
Jun 23, 2005 19:31
18 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term

"pour l'usage des Nourrices seulement"

French to English Other Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs
On a birth certificate. I can translate it word for word, but I was wondering more about why it's there. The birth certificate is from the year 1861.
Proposed translations (English)
5 For the wet nurse's use only
2 tentative answer

Discussion

Anna Maria Augustine (X) Jun 25, 2005:
Thanks. Glad to help. In a day and age where you can barely adopt it's hard to imagine the hundreds and thousands of abandonned babies. Conditions must have deplorable but those were "the good old days" !
Non-ProZ.com Jun 24, 2005:
The sentence is actually part of the sub-title of the certificate. So you have the title "Birth Certificate" and then under that the full sentence is:
"Delivre sur papier libre, pour l'usage des Nourrices seulement"
Then the certificate information begins, ie. name, date of birth, etc.

Proposed translations

9 mins
Selected

For the wet nurse's use only

...........

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Note added at 12 mins (2005-06-23 19:43:49 GMT)
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Do you have the previous and following sentences?
In those days babies were given to wet nurses for breast feeding but they are also child minders.

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Note added at 11 hrs 7 mins (2005-06-24 06:38:48 GMT)
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The only thing I can think of is: issued on loose leaf paper for the nannie\'s use only because birth details would have been written in the \"Livret de Famille\" for the parents. I am assuming these little booklets existed then as they do now, but the child\'s nanny would not have had access to it. However the nanny may have needed an official paper for some administrative purposes as they had most of the responsibility for the child. I doubt the parents would have given/lent the family booklet to the nanny.
You could give the issuing Mairie a call if it is in France but it is a long shot that someone might remember the reason for an administrative proceedure dating back around 150 years. The Mairie may have archives \'tho.

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Note added at 11 hrs 21 mins (2005-06-24 06:53:15 GMT)
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This might throw some light on the question: could the child have been abandonned like so many were in thos days?
http://www.aphp.fr/site/histoire/enfance_assistee.htm
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you very much for your input and for following up on it too! The idea that the baby may have been abandoned is not something that crossed my mind nor my client's mind, and yet that certificate is the only evidence of his existence! In fact, my client is quite stumped as to why there is absolutely no mention whatsoever of this baby in his family tree! He's going to be very happy with this new lead. "
9 mins

tentative answer

Declined
that's interesting. It would either refer to a piece of information on the birth certificate that only interested the nurse or nanny (weight at birth, precise age of the baby so as to know what quantities of milk/food are needed etc...) or maybe, and more likely, a certain type of birth certificates (some kind of copy of the original) was issued for nurses only so that they could actually travel with an infant who was not theirs (second guess most probable but I don't know for sure).
Something went wrong...
Comment: "I think your answer was great; especially the idea of a wet nurse needing paperwork to travel with an infant. I chose the other answer only because it opened up more possibilites, and my client is in fact wondering what happened to the baby as that birth certificate is the only evidence of his existence; it's like he was born and then dropped off the face of the earth. Thank you so much for your help."
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