Father of illegitimate child. Beyond reasonable doubt.

[coombs]

Once the parents marry the child is legitimate...

Nowadays and since 1926 that is the case but before then if the parents married after the birth then in the eyes of the law the child remained illegitimate.

[Windsor87]

I think I spend too much time an money in pursuit of trying to trace fathers of illegitimate children. Sometimes they are fairly easy to trace (see aspins comment regarding the Munros), but sometimes it is near on impossible. For example...

In September 1879 my great great great grandmother gave birth to illegitimate twins James and Samuel Garden. Their father was not stated on birth certificates, but it became clear through subsequent years that they were children of a Mr Dalgarno. When James Garden married, he gave his name as James Dalgarno, and registered his son as a Dalgarno too before changing his mind and reverting back to Garden. Samuel stuck to Garden, but on his marriage record it was stated that his mother was previously Mrs Dalgarno (which she never was).

Anyway...

I am a big fan of tracing fathers though the name of the illegitimate child. Thus I thought I'd see if there were any James or Samuel Dalgarnos in the Peterhead area as potential fathers to the twins. There were no Samuels, but two Jameses of interest.

In the first instance, James William Dalgarno had an illegitimate child with Jane Garden - the aunt of Samuel and James - in 1877. As you can imagine I thought I was in luck as there was a direct link to my family (possibly too direct). William married Jane in 1879, the year the twins were born. He became the most likely candidate until last night.

Last night I found the second James Dalgarno...

This second James Dalgarno lived at 31c Broad Street, Peterhead, in 1879. Margaret Garden - the twins mother - also lived at 31 Broad Street (it appears to be a block of flats). The twins place of birth in September 1879 was given as 31c Broad Street. Then it gets interesting. James Dalgarno's wife died in January 1879 1 1/4 months after child birth. Thus if he was the father of the twins, they would have been conceived when his wife was about 7 months pregnant (assuming both pregnancies lasted 9 months). So with a wife 7 months pregnant, may he have looked next door?

Of course I would never document either of them as the father as there is simply not enough evidence to suggest that either are definately the father. Makes you think though...

[aspin]

I'm LOL here Windsor husband says there was  tellie in those days ...

Did James pop next door for a cup of sugar I wonder

Yes you know the story of our Mary and William

It took me a long time to find that one out

Elizabeth

[Windsor87]

I'm LOL here Windsor husband says there was  tellie in those days ...

Did James pop next door for a cup of sugar I wonder

Yes you know the story of our Mary and William

It took me a long time to find that one out

Elizabeth

Well they had to do something to keep themselves occupied lol.

I must admit that finding William to begin with was a bit of a nightmare, but at least we were able to know beyond reasonable doubt that we tracked down Elnor's father - because we discovered he lived with her later on in life.

Sadly with the Dalgarnos there is nothing which allows me to definatively say that 'this one is the father'. In reality, if it is neither of the two I mentioned, it could be any of uncle James's male relatives or any of the male Dalgarnos next door, or any other Dalgarnos in between.

[lester garden]

Hi There
My Great Grand Mother was the Margaret Garden in your post
My Grand Father was one of the Twins James Garden born 1879 in Peterhead
Would like to share info with you sometime .
I have just set up a website called bluetoonroots.com  maybe you can check it out and help me to fill in the blanks
Kind regards
Lester Garden

[josey]

Welcome to rootschat  Lester.

Everyone who posted on this thread should get an email notification of your reply. Once you have made 2 more posts [you can just reply twice to this thread] you will be able to send a personal message to Windsor87 by clicking on the text icon under their name & clicking 'Send personal message'. Only by personal message can you mention the names of living people or your personal email address. Good luck.

[BillyF]

The illegitimacy issue is a mixed one.

I have a gt grandfather cited as the putative father in September 1817, the child was christened (and recorded as illegitimate) in October with his mother`s surname and the parents married in December. He appears on all the records with his father`s surname.

I have another one where the child was christened as the illegitimate son of both his mother and father. 3 months later the parents married but the child continued using his mother`s surname, as did all the following generations.

[louisa maud]

How can I work this one out
Birth cert states fathers name, dec, although I know he wasn't,  then a few months later the mother takes a man, not recognised as a family member to court, she was awarded maintenance from him, no DNA in those days , I really do not know how she got away with it

Louisa  Maud

[aspin]

Aspin here this is another story but cannot name anyone I had my DNA done nearly two years now on Ancestry . An email came though to me as a relative a name that I didn’t think was in my family tree but it did work out that one of my great great uncles Mr X had fathered a boy in 1891 . The point I had to make was that I had to tell MrX ‘s great great granddaughter. Who like me thought it couldn’t be . So those who have had a DNA test watch out you might find another story to tell . Photographs tell tales too these two men did look alike Elizabeth  Hi Windsor how are you all keeping up in Scotland