Multiple illegitimate children: how unusual?

[Andrew Tarr]

... it was more common for men to sleep around than women.

I have always wondered about the stats for this.  On the face of it, it makes sense, but as it takes two to tango, one must deduce that to be outnumbered, the women who participated must have had more partners than the men.  Presumably many of them belonged to the oldest profession.

[iolaus]

My grandmother got married while expecting her third or fourth child

Kept first one, second one was adopted, I *think* her third was stillborn (my dad can remember something about her having a boy who died at birth before they married) then got married 3 months before my aunt was born (was late 20s into mid thirties)

[coombs]

I have a couple who had their first child in 1834, the child was given father's forename as a middle name, and the couple finally married in 1839.

[Fogmoose]

Not that unusual in Northeast Scotland in the pre/early-Victorian era. My 2G Grandmother had 6 children with 4 different fathers and never married. She died at age 94. Her mother had 3 illegitimate as well, though all by the same father. And her mother's mother had at least one that I'm sure of. So it ran in familys apparently. LoL

[jjq]

Not unusual - my great great grandmother Sarah, had  5 children out of wedlock (First when she was 17, 5th when she was 36). She then married and had 3 more children.   One of her daughter had an illegitimate son, but married 4 years later and had a large family.  No fathers named for any of them.

Incidentally, no trace of Sarahs parents getting married, so... like mother, like daughter etc?

On my fathers side, his aunt had three daughters out of wedlock, but they were brought up as her siblings.

[brigidmac]

It's always worth looking for baptism s in such cases
Father is sometimes named
One of mine ran off when she was 15 had 2 children before marriage went to South Africa had another then got  married and had 3 children baptised together had another 2
Her husband died while she was pregnant and she had another child 2 years after his death who carried his surname.

[Frankie93]

Thank you all for this input to a question I had registered in order to ask! It appears the sister of my husband's great (x3) grandfather had at least 10 illegitimate children - no suspected father on any census, absence of maiden name on GRO entries, always unmarried on census.  Unfortunately I cannot find any baptisms for any of the children. They all (but one) vanish off the radar by 1881. Cannot find clear deaths or marriages (still to look at emigration or to order birth certs to get more information).

Before I went any further I was going to ask how common this was.  Seems it was, although 10 seems to be quite a lot. Her name was Margaret Berry b. c. 1823, baptized Aysgarth N. Yorks in 1826. I cannot find her first three in GRO (Joseph c. 1842; Mary c. 1843 and Ann c. 1845). Joseph I tracked further by marriage, censuses and death. Ann must have died as Margaret had another daughter in 1864 named Ann.

[Heb66]

Hi all,
I am a DNA search angel reseacher and I have for the past two years been helping a wonderful family of three half siblings all born between 1929-1938 in the Kensington area with different fathers.
Mum didn't marry until many years after the third was born. Sadly the first and last born siblings spent time in childrens homes.
Have reconnected two of the siblings via DNA with their paternal family lines and currently working on the last born.
I really don't think multiple illegitimate births are so unusual.
Helen x

[brigidmac]

Heb 66 i like your title dna search angel researcher

I call myself a time travel detective have also helped many people thru dna results with adoption in their lines .
My grandmother was adopted we now know her birth parents .
& Helped a war baby work out which line of smiths she was from. And the most likely sibling/half sibling to be her birth father.

I certainly believe with luck and tbe right people testing you can identify the birth father of parents grandparents and even great grandparents thru dna