This paper uses a comparative legal history approach to examine the "private" law of the family in France, Italy, and the major English-speaking countries in order to clarify the fundamental notions of the family which predated the welfare state. It is suggested that a major cleavage exists, historically, between an autonomous family law in France and Italy oriented around notions of familial solidarity, sibling interdependence and equality, and intergenerational continuity, and a family law in the English-speaking countries marked by a preoccupation with the protection of property rights and the independence of individual family members. These contrasts reveal differing societal conceptions about the importance of family life, and resulted in the earlier emergence and higher legitimacy of maternal and child benefits in France and Italy than in the English-speaking countries.