Illegitimate Children

[Lis1234]

Could children born with no father noted on birth certificate just have unmarried parents as oppose to the mother not knowing who the father is?

Ancestors of mine were all registerred under the mother's maiden name with a diagonal line under 'father' in 1914, 1915 and 1920, their mother married in 1922 and all children took her husband's surname, is he likely to be the father too or just stepfather??

There was no father noted on any of the marriage certificates when the children got married either and after the mother died in 1931 it seems the father/stepfather disappeared...

Thought going off the years involved that WW1 might have something to do with it but I found his service record and he was only in army for a matter of months (Dec 1915 - June 1916) before being discharged due to deafness.

Any info on this would be much appreciated 

[Guy Etchells]

Basically it depends of the date of birth.

Between 1837 and around or slightly before 1850 a father's name could appear on the birth certificate of a bastard child.
After 1850 until 1875 the father's name could not appear on a birth certificate of a bastard child.

From 1875 onwards the father's name could appear on the birth certificate only if both he and the mother sign as informants.

Cheers
Guy

PS It is possible the children simply took the husbands name after marriage, this was quite common. Have you searched to see if there were any baptism records they often hold more information?

[groom]

I would think from the information you have given that he was the stepfather. If he was their natural father I would think that they would have named him on their marriage certificates.

A father, even if the parents weren't married could be named on a birth certificate as long as the father agreed. So usually the absence of a father means that he was already married or for some other reason didn't want to acknowledge the child.

[Lis1234]

Ah ok, well that's that branch of my tree at a brick wall then as I have no idea who the father could be!
I've looked for baptism records and can't find anything at all for any of the children 

[groom]

Who does it give as next of kin on the stepfather's war records? It might be worth checking just in case he was married before and so couldn't marry her earlier.

I'm afraid you probably have reached a brick wall, unless there are any clues in the children's names.

[Lis1234]

His next of kin was his father and he had put 'no' under 'are you married?'

No clues in their names, I only managed to find them in the end from a marriage record where a middle name seemed an odd name to have - looked into it an it was their mother's maiden name.

I wonder why they were given/kept their stepfather's surname when seemingly he was only around for 9/10 years (and I don't think died for a further 10 despite not being around)  Puzzling.

[groom]

Possibly as they were so young when he became their stepfather and if he bought them up, they were just known by his name and kept it when they were adults. Were there any more children born after the marriage?

[Lis1234]

Yes that must be it as they were only 8, 7 and 2 when their mother married.

There was another child born the year they were married (they were married in April, so was either born early in the year or she was pregnant when they married) - he took the father's surname but he died aged 1. There were no more children after that that I can find.

[Guy Etchells]

Have you tried searching for an Order of Filiation? Try the A2A (Access to Archives) database.
Cheers
Guy