Did Your Chapter Adopt a French Orphan?

As I traveled (in person and virtually!) to complete my official state visits, I shared some DAR history for the benefit of our new members and guests in order to illustrate our long legacy of service work. One of the examples that evoked the most response was our commitment to “adopt” orphans in France during World War I.

Several chapters reached out to me to share how proud they were to have had this distinction.  For example, Colorado’s Fort Morgan Chapter Historian Linda Midcap related that the chapter’s minutes of February 22, 1918, discussed their orphan, Rene Deboule, who had been born on June 21, 1910, and of whom they had a photo. On the rear of the image is noted, “Received Jan. 18, 1919,” and “Our French Boy.”

“With the country engulfed in the war abroad, Americans at home turned their attention to France and what they could do for her citizens.  At the 26th Continental Congress, which was held a mere 10 days after the United States declared war on Germany, President General Daisy Allen Story read a letter from former President Theodore Roosevelt, encouraging the DAR to assist France in their time of need.  Roosevelt reported that half a million French children had lost their fathers in the War and that the French government “staggering under the stupendous financial burdens of the war,” could not fully support these orphaned children.  

DAR members answered the call and began “adopting,” or sponsoring, these children.  $36.50 supported one child for an entire year.  Through Elise Richards Jusserand, the wife of the French ambassador to the United States, the DAR sent money to the “Fatherless Children of France” organization, which in turn sent quarterly payments to the children’s guardians.  Instead of sending orphans to the United States for formal adoption with American families, it was felt that the future of France depended on keeping the children in their country of birth.  DAR members, both individually and together with the support of their Chapters and State Societies, supported the orphans, often “adopting” entire families.  The members sent Christmas and birthday presents to the children and exchanged letters with them.  By 1918, more than 1,000 children were supported by the DAR.