General opinion wanted

[doodleysquat]

I have a baptism in a small village in 1800 with the parents' names given (both the same surname as the child). I can later only find someone who COULD have been the mother....the only possibility for the father (same name) was married to someone else, & produced a good crop of children with her. I can't find any siblings for the child whose baptism I'm looking at. I've searched far & wide but can't find another couple who could have been his parents.

Soooo, this is one of those wonderfully vague questions. If this child was actually illegitimate & was the result of an affair the man married to someone else had , would it have been possible/acceptable for the mother to have adopted the father's surname & for her name in this form & his name to have benn registered as the parents (bearing in mind this was a small village & everyone would have known he was married to someone else) &, if there were circumstances of illegitimacy, are there any indications I could look for ?

[rosie99]

Is it possible that the vicar got the mothers first name wrong on the christening - this does happen.

Rosie

[maidmarianoops]

hello
have you got a name and place please


sylvia

[flipflops]

personally I think it is unlikely, but if it was me, I'd like to check other entries to se what was written. Some clergy gave fantastic information including the mother's maiden name, abode and, in the case of illegitimacy,  details of who the reputed father was etc. Have you considered that the child was a product of incest?

[mshrmh]

I'm echoing Rosie - I was looking for children yesterday for a couple - found I think 8 or 9 one in the middle had a different mother's name (new FamilySearch site) and the father's name isn't that common. Again no matches for the "odd" pair. These were all at the same non-conformist chapel so my gut feeling was that that either the transcriber or the person compiling the register had got it wrong (looked at the line above in the register or their notes perhaps). In both case sight of the originals (films etc) rather than transcriptions may decide.

[amanda0901]

You could always try Access to Archives - there may be a Bastardy Order if the child was illegitimate. 

Does the date of the baptism "fit in" with the other children? It may well be human error - I've had a "rogue" mother in the parish records, only to find the correct one in the family bible!

Good luck!

[Jeuel]

My gt x 3 grandmother is recorded on her children's baptisms, by the same vicar, as Susanna, Susannah, Suzanne, Anne and Susan!  I found this when I was new to family history and spent some time looking for further marriages for her husband Robert before I realised it was the same woman!

[c-side]

I'd agree with the general opinion that it is probably the same woman.  I have parents Thomas and Dinah in some baptisms who, for one only, become Thomas and Hannah.

I also think that if there was an illegitimate birth in 1800 the vicar would have said so!

Christine

[flipflops]

Sometimes it's worth checking the  BT's to see if they're any different?