An illegitmate birth -a couple of questions

[KGarrad]

On the subject of illegitimate births, if the father is not named on the birth certificate what is the possibility of finding out who he was? And how could I find out?
My great grandmother was born in 1865, at Helston workhouse, father not named. 

You can hope that a baptism record will name the father? Some vicars named the culprit!
Or that a Bastardy Order exists, requiring the father to pay what we now call maintenance.


I attended an Anglican Christening a few years ago, and had an interesting conversation with the lady vicar.
She said that a Christening and a Baptism are in fact 2 distinct services! But that in nearly all cases, the baptism follows immediately after the christening, without a break.

The Christening part is giving a name to the child.
The Baptism part is welcoming the child (or person) into the family of the Church.

[brigidmac]

Baptised as an adult...would he have known who his father was ...his mother may have told him a name and that his father was dead.

[sharv22]

Thank you for your suggestion Viktoria, I shall look into his religious background. I'm amazed that even after over ten years of family research, I'm still learning new things.

[AngelFish]

On the subject of illegitimate births, if the father is not named on the birth certificate what is the possibility of finding out who he was? And how could I find out?
My great grandmother was born in 1865, at Helston workhouse, father not named. 

I had this in my family but lucky the child was given a middle name which turned out to be the fathers surname. Also, the mother and father married several years later. The child continued to use the surname he was born with (the mothers name), but it was quite obvious who his father probably was. I've since had DNA prove the theory.

[iolaus]

I have one who was named on the baptism (well kind of - it was written as son of Thomas Williams alias William Thomas)

[andrewalston]

I have one who was named on the marriage certificate. An unusual name too, which made tracing him quite easy.

Another illegitimate girl had an associated bastardy order, and there was a retrospective one on the same day for her elder sister.

Another couple had three children but never married. The father was named on all their baptisms.

And then there's the one whose baptism and marriage have the father left blank, and there's no birth registration at all. Mum died young, still unmarried, so no clues there. 

Your mileage may vary!