Voldemort's childhood

[Andrea]

No: HPFGUIDX 50809

--- manawydan <manawydan at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> 1. Why was Tom Riddle given his father's name rather than his mother's
> (as
> would have been normal for an orphan born at the time)? How did the
> muggle
> authorities even know what his father's name was?

Riddle said something about "she lived just long enough to name me",
implying Mrs.Riddle died shortly after his birth, not actually during it. 
A mother may generally give her child either her own last name or the
father's, so long as she identifies who it is, whether they're married or
not. (Since we don't know for sure which was the case.)
 
> 2. How did he later find out his family history, given that his mother
> was
> dead and presumably (if he was in a muggle orphanage) there were no
> wizard
> relatives nearby to bring him up?

I picture a pregnant Mrs. Riddle, abandoned by her husband for being magic
and cast out by her family for consorting with a Muggle, knowing she was
weak and there's a strong possibility she won't survive the birth.  So she
writes out a long letter to her unborn child, which she gives to someone
at the orphanage and insists he be given the letter at a certain age.

Depending on your opinion of Mrs.Riddle, the letter was either full of
bittersweet memories about her darling husband, thus making Tom
contemptuous that she would still feel this way even after he abandoned
her, or full of vitriol and hate about the man who abandoned them, thus
indoctrinating Tom in her views. :)  Either way, the letter would have
also mentioned her own family and the legend that's been passed down about
Slytherin's Heir.
 
> 3. Should not the MoM have had some sort of adoption arrangements to
> cover
> that kind of situation? It seems harsh to leave a WW child to be brought
> up
> in the less than salubrious kind of local authority care that there
> would
> have been in the 1920s.

There doesn't appear to be a MoM office that deals with this sort of
thing.  All of Harry's living arrangements, after all, were made by
Dumbledore, who holds no official position in the Ministry.  Historically
speaking, the idea of state-sponsored adoption and orphan care is fairly
modern.  If the wizarding world is still stuck in the past for many of
their traditions, they may also consider orphans to be something that
should be dealt with by the extended family and/or village.

Andrea

=====
"Reality is for people who lack imagination."

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