[Ads-l] "Half brother" in the 19-century U.S.

Tue Feb 24 22:14:53 UTC 2026

Here is an 1890 citation that seems to refer to a stepbrother as a
half-brother. I have extracted two paragraphs from the article. The
daughter Lydia seems to be the product of a first marriage. Lydia's
mother remarried to a man who already had an adopted son.

In modern parlance the son would be the stepbrother of Lydia, but the
article calls him a half-bother.

There is some ambiguity because the article suggests that Lydia is the
product of the first marriage, but it does not state that directly.

In any case, the two are not genetically related.

Date: January 21, 1890
Newspaper: The Boston Herald
Newspaper Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Article: A Sad Life Story Ended: Beautiful Lydia Libby Was Tired of Existence
Quote Page 5, Column 3
Database: GenealogyBank

[Begin excerpt]
“Lydia told me something of her family affairs. Her mother works as a
nurse in Lowell. She was divorced from her first husband, and married
a man named Badger. He had an adopted son, between whom and Lydia a
strong friendship existed."
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt]
About the middle of October last she (Lydia) decided to try her
fortune in another place, and, with the aid of her adopted
half-brother, she found her way to Boston. Here she stayed for about
two weeks at a hotel on Court street.
[End excerpt]

Garson O'Toole

On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 12:09 PM Michael Eldridge <me2 at humboldt.edu> wrote:
>
> Stephen: thanks very much for the book rec and for those citations--which
> tend to corroborate both the handful of citations I was able to find in
> COHA and my vague understanding of how the "half/step" distinction was
> understood and/or observed throughout the century.
>
> I am indeed tracking a specific individual--an ancestor with somewhat
> mysterious parentage. He seems to have been raised by, and spent his entire
> life closely involved with, a family with a different surname. I've always
> assumed, based on a variety of circumstantial evidence, that the mother of
> that family was also *his *mother. (Among other things, both he and the
> eldest of that family's seven children--all younger than he--were referred
> to in their respective obituaries, in 1878 and 1906, as the other's "half
> brother.") But this woman was too young to have been married
> previously--and in any event, when my ancestor was born, she'd been married
> for nearly three years to the eventual father of the other seven children.
> But even if he was "illegitimate," it seems odd that, having known no other
> parents, my ancestor would have retained his *own *surname, and that his
> presumed mother, who outlived him, was not identified in his obituary as
> one of his survivors. (Would it have been a breach of decorum--or of her
> "honor"--to say such a thing explicitly in a rural midwestern newspaper?)
>
> Michael Eldridge
> Professor Emeritus, English <https://www.humboldt.edu/english/> and
> International
> Studies
> Founders Hall 168
> Cal Poly Humboldt
> Arcata CA 95521
> 707.826.5906 (ph) | 707.826.5939 (fx)
> _____________________________
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 7:10 AM Stephen Goranson <
> 00001dd3d6fc15d3-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > There apparently are published 19th-century US cases in which step brother
> > and half brother are distinguished
> > and other cases in which they are taken as identical. With what proportions
> > and change, I don't know.
> >
> > "Near Greenville, Mo., John Spain was killed by his half brother and
> > step-brother, both of whom were captured later."
> > Evansville [Indiana] Courier and Press, April 6, 1895, p8/c5 [
> > newspapers.com;
> > I having trouble copying the link on this computer]
> > ~~~~~
> > "Davis was captured by his own cousin, who is also a step-brother, a half
> > brother."
> > Messenger and Examiner, Owensboro, Kentucky, Sept. 8, 1887, 3/4. [
> > newspapers.com]
> > ~~~~~~
> > UK, Manchester Weekly Times and Examiner, Sept. 9, 1898, 7/5 [n...com]
> > "There is a great difference [for inheritance] between a "step-brother" and
> > a "half-brother," though many persons fail to notice it." [n.com;
> > presumably it comes up in court cases]
> > ~~~~~
> > As you may know, OED online at stepbrother n. has "A son of a person's
> > step-parent by a previous marriage or relationship. Also occasionally: a
> > half-brother." And in etymology, "
> > Summary
> > Formed within English, by compounding.
> > *Etymons:* step- *comb. form*
> > <
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oed.com/dictionary/step_combform?tab=meaning_and_use*20611001__;Iw!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsvTF76-bc$
> > >
> > , brother *n.*
> > <
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oed.com/dictionary/brother_n?tab=meaning_and_use*13043196__;Iw!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsv3Uo9p7U$
> > >
> > < step- *comb. form*
> > <
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oed.com/dictionary/step_combform?tab=meaning_and_use*20611001__;Iw!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsvTF76-bc$
> > >
> >  + brother *n.*
> > <
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oed.com/dictionary/brother_n?tab=meaning_and_use*13043196__;Iw!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsv3Uo9p7U$
> > >
> >
> > Compare earlier half-brother *n.*
> > <
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.oed.com/dictionary/half-brother_n?tab=meaning_and_use*2219567__;Iw!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsvAvzLHzQ$
> > >
> > ~~~~
> > I don't know a quick or easy way to fully answer your query; others may.
> > Are you tracing a specific individual and his status?
> >
> > Stephen G.
> >
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://people.duke.edu/*goranson__;fg!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsvsYtNUsw$
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 4:39 PM Michael Eldridge <me2 at humboldt.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Hello ADS Folk:
> > >
> > > I'm not a linguist by training, so a linguist colleague has helped me
> > frame
> > > the following query.
> > >
> > > I’m looking for attested nineteenth-century U.S. colloquial usage of
> > "half
> > > brother." Specifically: are there examples where “half brother” clearly
> > > refers to what we’d now call a stepbrother (adopted sibling/no shared
> > > biological parent), or is “half brother,” when specified, consistently
> > > reserved for “one shared parent”? I’d love citations
> > > (newspapers/letters/books), especially contrastive phrasings (half
> > brother
> > > vs step-brother) and any evidence of change across 1800–1900.
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > >
> > > Michael Eldridge
> > > Professor Emeritus, English <https://www.humboldt.edu/english/ > and
> > > International
> > > Studies
> > > Founders Hall 168
> > > Cal Poly Humboldt
> > > Arcata CA 95521
> > > 707.826.5906 (ph) | 707.826.5939 (fx)
> > > _____________________________
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society -
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.americandialect.org__;!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsviHZ0Xes$
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.americandialect.org__;!!OzdlGbv3!_542PfH5j6axlUbgqg3yqOILyX9wW1OdoAH8V8hK7NJ3ph0J2wJHL6Ck0wPsS925I4DjztJqFR9bnAdNeQZAVbgcgrsviHZ0Xes$
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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