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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: bean on Friday 15 August 14 10:12 BST (UK)
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If there's no fathers name on the birth certificate (circa 1922) what other options are there to find out who the father was?
All I can think of is waiting for 1931 census and seeing if he's listed at the same address but if there is a male head of household it wouldn't be definite he was the father (I guess if there was some sort of naming pattern it might help).
I don't think he married so marriage certificate is out as well.
My brain's fried beyond that so I'm hoping someone on here can come up with some suggestions!
Thanks in advance for any pointers anyone can give,
Bean
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Very little, if anything at all, unfortunately
In the case of illegitimate births, the father could only be named if he was present at the registration
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That's sort of what I thought, I'm not even sure if he was christened and even if he was would the father be named there?
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He might be -- but no guarantee.
Would all depend on what info the mother gave the vicar
If the father did not acknowledge the child, it would be unlikely that he is named anywhere
If the father acknowledged the child but was merely unable to attend the registration with the mother, then it is possible he is named in the baptism register
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1931 E&W Census was destroyed by bombing during WW2.
Even if there was a "father" listed on the Census, doesn't necessarily mean he was the child's father though.
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I had this problem with my gt grandmother whose birth cert shows she was illegitimate, but I had some what now seem easy clues to verify her father but it was difficult at the time.
First, my elderly mother said that he lived with them when she was a girl in the 1920s. However, she got his name completely wrong so I wasted a lot of time looking for someone who didn`t exist.
Next, I went to the local crem and searched the Burial book and found his name by checking the address.
The next thing was his obituary and my gt grandmother was in the list of mourners as " his daughter "
I already knew that she had lived with him and her stepmother as a child ( my mother again, but accurate ! ) On the 1871 Census my gt grandmother is shown at his address but listed ( with her mother`s surname ) as a visitor ! But before the census I found a record for my gt grandmother on a school reigster but with her father`s surname.
I was very fortunate to put all this together, I hope you have similar success.
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If they have survived you could try the Petty Sessions records to see if the mother applied for child maintenance.
Occasionally child maintenance cases were mentioned in Newspapers
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thanks all - a bit to think about there, hadn't even thought of burial books or petty sessions.