Daily AncestorBoarded out
Boarded out meant a pauper, a dependent child or a harmless insane person was placed with a private family that the town or state paid for their keep.
Instead of sending everyone to the almshouse, towns often paid a family a weekly sum to board a pauper. In 1831 a Maine town agreed to pay one man two dollars a week to board a pauper in his house. By 1890 Massachusetts boarded many children and, under a law of the 1880s, some insane patients in private families.
A boarded-out person may show up in a census in an unrelated household, listed as a boarder. Overseers' accounts that pay a named family for someone's board can explain why.
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Daily Ancestor. "Boarded out." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/poor-relief/boarded-out. Last checked 2026-10-03.