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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: david64 on Wednesday 13 January 10 01:04 GMT (UK)
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I have come across an illegitimate birth in 1918 and the birth certificate doesn't name a farther, not even a profession. Am I pretty much left with looking for someone who may know that is alive?
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Hi David
Although mine is further back in time, I had an illegitimate birth back in 1839 but her father is listed on the marriage certificate. Perhaps you could try this? Otherwise I dont know!
Kind regards
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You have to be very careful with illegitamate's marriage certificates as the fathers names were often falsified to avoid the stigma.
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You have to be very careful with illegitamate's marriage certificates as the fathers names were often falsified to avoid the stigma.
Do you mean that people would put a name of a man they would prefer to be there or that of their husband (in the case that the child was through the result of an affair)?
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Exactly....... its was quite a common occurance so it did not appear that they were illegitimate
Sometimes they give a brother or grandfathers name as in the case of my own maternal gt. grandmother.
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All types of father's names get put on to marriage certs - sometimes Stepfathers names were given, sometimes the name of a close male relative (grandfather for example), and sometimes the names are completely made up - perhaps Mum had pretended to be a widow and so children grow up believing that their dad died young.
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I concur with the information others have said. Had it been years before you could have tried bastardy bonds but at 1918 that is not possible. One option is the will of the mother if she left one. She may have named him in there.
Rob
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I concur with the information others have said. Had it been years before you could have tried bastardy bonds but at 1918 that is not possible. One option is the will of the mother if she left one. She may have named him in there.
OK, will have to look for a will; thought I doubt she left one. I think I am left with the marriage certificate, the half-brother and half-sister of my grandmother and failing that a spiritual medium.
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I am in the exact same position with my husband's great granfather. He was born in 1885 with no father listed and there is a father on the marriage cert. In my case, the father's name is identical to the illegitimate child - easier to remember if questioned??
Anyway, one thing I am trying, that you can also try, is tracing the people he's lived with. His mother died when he was 12 (1897), so I am tracing the family he's living with in 1901. Maybe I will find something???? Even if I do find something, it will be a guess and I probably won't know it if I stumble over it.
I am thinking that DNA testing may be the only option. Luckily for me, it's my husband's paternal line.
Does your person have siblings? Did the mother eventually marry? Supposedly, it wasn't uncommon for the mother to marry the father at a later date. If you have siblings, you could try tracing their father, as that's a possibility. For me, mine was an only child - another dead end.
I would love to hear other ideas.
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I am thinking that DNA testing may be the only option. Luckily for me, it's my husband's paternal line.
Does your person have siblings? Did the mother eventually marry? Supposedly, it wasn't uncommon for the mother to marry the father at a later date. If you have siblings, you could try tracing their father, as that's a possibility. For me, mine was an only child - another dead end.
I would love to hear other ideas.
I've also thought of DNA testing, but that would obviously require a suspicion - unless you plan on getting the nation swabbed :P Luckily I have some notes from my great-aunt giving the name Lewis living on a certain farm and the year 1855 and found a Lewis working on that farm who was born in 1854.
Don't know about siblings or what happened to the mother for sure. This is where you start wishing that your ancestors had uncommon names.
If you are lucky to have them living in a sparse area, you may be able to get something from church records. The other option is to contact all living relatives that might know. Or you could try a psychic, but I am yet to hear of positive results from that.
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But DNA will not prove that he is the father however it will tell you the likelihood of a connection and how many generations ago. Personally I dont like DNA within Genealogy
Rob
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The only benefit to DNA testing would be if someone else is a match as a relative, and they have done some tracing, then you have a family grouping to work forward or back from - it's better than the nothing that that we have now. It could give us a lot of erroneous leads, but I'll take anything right now. If there is no serious connection, then it provides nothing and it was a waste of money.
Definitely try asking everyone! You are lucky with respect to the fact that people are still living. I only have one person who knew the great grandfather, and his memories are those of a 5 year old. If he was born in 1918, there could definitely still be people who remember something. Anything you get will be family folklore that will have to be proven, but it will give you directions to look in.
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Andarah,
But the fact is with DNA testing it will only tell you a percentile chance of being related and where the likely common ancestor is so that could be as little as 5 generations or as many as can be conceived so for example if it is 13 generations back and another researcher as that generation you still have to find the other 12 generations first. So assuming there are 2 male children every generation the amount of possible lines would be over 4000 male connections before reaching generation 13. This only works with males as well. MtA testing would give an even greater number of lines to trace and the percentile would be much lower thus rendering it useless.
The only interesting part of DNA in my opinion is the haplo groups and the originating area for each one.
Rob
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I concur with the information others have said. Had it been years before you could have tried bastardy bonds but at 1918 that is not possible. One option is the will of the mother if she left one. She may have named him in there.
I found the father of an illegitimate child born at this time through the Petty Sessions records.
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I found the father of an illegitimate child born at this time through the Petty Sessions records.
Thanks for the info. Will consult those if available.
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Petty sessions are courts similar to todays magistrates so I am guessing the mother is trying to get support for her child. Thats an interesting point to consider and one I have never considered so many thx
Rob
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Hi David,
Don't completely discount the father's name on a marriage certificate!
My illegitimate ancestor was married using her mother's maiden name, but she also named her father on the cert. On researching this man, I found out that he was living right next door at the time of her birth. He was an immigrant with an unusual name, and the child was given a similar middle name (Bennis, instead of Benussi). Her mother probably said his name as she heard it through an accent, but the daughter put his correct name, address and occupation in full - and broke down my brick wall!
I believe illegitimate children were quite often given the father's surname as their middle name.
Arkay
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Hi David,
Don't completely discount the father's name on a marriage certificate!
My illegitimate ancestor was married using her mother's maiden name, but she also named her father on the cert. On researching this man, I found out that he was living right next door at the time of her birth. He was an immigrant with an unusual name, and the child was given a similar middle name (Bennis, instead of Benussi). Her mother probably said his name as she heard it through an accent, but the daughter put his correct name, address and occupation in full - and broke down my brick wall!
I believe illegitimate children were quite often given the father's surname as their middle name.
Arkay
This is of course true as well however in genealogy we work with facts and unless you can prove as you did beyond reasonable doubt then it should not be placed in the tree but kept as a possible.
My own 3 x great grandfater had none of the above but named one person as his father on his marriage cert. I have tried and canot find any proof so whilst I have the info recroded it will not go in my tree
Rob
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Don't put too much faith in a father's name on a marriage certificate.
My great grandfather was illegitimate and his mother never told anyone who the father was.
On my g-g's marriage certificate he gave a father's name I assumed was his stepfather's name and it lead to all sorts of wrong conclusions - I looked for marriages, I looked at censuses etc. etc. and found absolutely nothing.
Eventually I found a baptism record for him with a mother's name only and that opened the floodgates.
It turns out the name he gave was his own surname and his stepfather's christian name!
It didn't help that he gave the wrong age and place of birth!!
Andrea
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My 2 x g.grandfather was illegitimate and when I first bought what I thought was his marriage cert, (it turned out to be the correct certificate), I discounted it because there was a totally different name for his father and at that time I hadn't found out that he was illegitimate.
Since searching on FreeREG, I see that he was illegitimate and that is what is listed in the Parish Register. However, as my 2 x g.grandfather was born in a very small village in Lincolnshire where this man also lived, I am fairly certain he must have been his father, or like other illegitimate ancestors I have he would have just made up a name, giving the "supposed" father the same surname as himself.
Unlike Andrea's experience, I know my 2 x g.grandfather didn't have a stepfather, his mother died in a workhouse still single, when 2 x g.grandfather was only 16.
Lizzie
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Lizzie,
Funny coincidence on this thread is that you have the surname in your interests that my 3 x great grandfather put on his marriage cert. Bettison
Rob
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Hi Rob
I was only really interested in Bettison my 2 x g.uncle married a widow and living with her (before she married 2 x g.uncle) was her mother with the name of Bettison. Despite getting no response from a couple or people who have her in their tree on Ancestry, I have found out who her first husband was and who her parents were and I'm satisfied with that. I don't need to go any further, unless you have any interesting info. The family appear to have come from the Clay Cross area of Derbyshire.
Lizzie
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Lizzie,
I have no more info as I chose not to try and track down mine because I would never be able to prove the paternity. My family started in South Normanton and ended up in Clay Cross.
Rob