Lori Chambers is a professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University.

‘This is a timely and through analysis that will be of interest to scholars of legal and family history.’- Tarah Brookfield (The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth vol 11:01:2018) "Chambers’s scholarship provides needed insights into the origins of adoption law, the dubious tactics of social workers…, the responsibilities of putative fathers, the sordid tale of child apprehension, the debate between closed and open adoptions, and the fight to be legally recognized as parents by step-parents, same-sex parents, and biological fathers."- Debra Nash-Chambers, Wilfred Laurier University (University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018)

• IntroductionChapter One: "Such a Program of Legislation": Illegitimacy and Law ReformChapter Two: "Doubtful of her Veracity": Procedures and Judgment under the Children of Unmarried Parents ActChapter Three: "I did not bring this child into the world BY MYSELF": Stories of PregnancyChapter Four: "Best for Our Babies": The Adoption MandateChapter Five: "Haunted by Bills": Lone Motherhood and PovertyChapter Six: "Known as MRS. S": Cohabitation and the Children of Unmarried Parents ActConclusionsBibliography

Lori Chambers is a professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University.

‘This is a timely and through analysis that will be of interest to scholars of legal and family history.’- Tarah Brookfield (The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth vol 11:01:2018) "Chambers’s scholarship provides needed insights into the origins of adoption law, the dubious tactics of social workers…, the responsibilities of putative fathers, the sordid tale of child apprehension, the debate between closed and open adoptions, and the fight to be legally recognized as parents by step-parents, same-sex parents, and biological fathers."- Debra Nash-Chambers, Wilfred Laurier University (University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018)

• IntroductionChapter One: "Such a Program of Legislation": Illegitimacy and Law ReformChapter Two: "Doubtful of her Veracity": Procedures and Judgment under the Children of Unmarried Parents ActChapter Three: "I did not bring this child into the world BY MYSELF": Stories of PregnancyChapter Four: "Best for Our Babies": The Adoption MandateChapter Five: "Haunted by Bills": Lone Motherhood and PovertyChapter Six: "Known as MRS. S": Cohabitation and the Children of Unmarried Parents ActConclusionsBibliography

Lori Chambers is a professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University.

‘This is a timely and through analysis that will be of interest to scholars of legal and family history.’- Tarah Brookfield (The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth vol 11:01:2018) "Chambers’s scholarship provides needed insights into the origins of adoption law, the dubious tactics of social workers…, the responsibilities of putative fathers, the sordid tale of child apprehension, the debate between closed and open adoptions, and the fight to be legally recognized as parents by step-parents, same-sex parents, and biological fathers."- Debra Nash-Chambers, Wilfred Laurier University (University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018)

• IntroductionChapter One: "Such a Program of Legislation": Illegitimacy and Law ReformChapter Two: "Doubtful of her Veracity": Procedures and Judgment under the Children of Unmarried Parents ActChapter Three: "I did not bring this child into the world BY MYSELF": Stories of PregnancyChapter Four: "Best for Our Babies": The Adoption MandateChapter Five: "Haunted by Bills": Lone Motherhood and PovertyChapter Six: "Known as MRS. S": Cohabitation and the Children of Unmarried Parents ActConclusionsBibliography