General tips re: illegitimate children

[coombs]

I think there was a rule pre 1874/1875 as well,

The 1836 B&D Act (in E/W) had no specific mention of how, or if, a registrar should record an unmarried father. Between 1837 and 1874 most registrars seem to have not entered them on the register at all, so the column is left blank.

But a few did sometimes allow it and you do see a few entries with both parents named whilst clearly unmarried, but they are the exception.

The 1874 Act brought in the process of an unmarried father having to be present to sign the register entry as a "join informant" to be named - which is still the law today.

Thanks, I did think fathers on birth certs of illegitimate children was rarely named 1837 to 1874, before the 1874 Act of an unmarried father having to be present to sign the register entry as a "join informant" to be named.

[DianaCanada]

I mentioned earlier that my illegitimate ancestor's father's name was included when he married in 1842. Were there any rules about that?  Although he had spent 20 years overseas in the Army he returned home and married in his home parish.  I think it's likely everyone knew who his father was anyway.  I am 99% sure my Stephen had a full brother not much older who took his father's surname in time and also followed the same trade.

[antiquesam]

I think people were sometimes a little untruthful when they married to save face.

[DianaCanada]

I think people were sometimes a little untruthful when they married to save face.

When it’s a small community, it seems less likely, as everybody would know the truth. 

[antiquesam]

I can only speak for my own family but my illegitimate father and his sister both used an uncle as their father on their marriage certificate. My grandmother lied about her she on her second marriage. My paternal g/grandmother used her maiden name when registering my g/mother's birth while still married. I have a couple who married twice with the husband using different surnames and the wife declaring her self a spinster both times. After all it was unlikely anyone would check.

[jbml]

I think the "giving the father's surname as a second (or third) given name" thing was probably in many cases a cunning way of subverting the rule against naming the father in the birth registration ...

Bastardy orders can be useful, but check the surrounding circumstances before you spend time looking for one.

My only missing great x3 grandparent is the father of an illegitimate great x2 grandfather. I'm not even going to attempt to look for a bastardy order. Why not? Because my great x3 grandmother and her sister appear to have been the village whores. No judgement here ... their father died young, leaving their mother to raise the family as best she could. She took in washing but that can't have paid very well ... so the two oldest daughters supplemented the family income in the only way they could. What else were they to do in pre-welfare state days? Let their younger brothers starve?

They had three illegitimate children each ... and that tells me all I need to know. There won't BE any bastardy orders. Why not? Because once a village whore starts seeking maintenance (even assuming she can overcome the "how can you be sure it was ME?" defence) ... word gets around and business dries up. Not what you want if that business is the only thing putting food on the family table ... so they won't have done it. End of story.

[jbml]

I can only speak for my own family but my illegitimate father and his sister both used an uncle as their father on their marriage certificate. My grandmother lied about her she on her second marriage. My paternal g/grandmother used her maiden name when registering my g/mother's birth while still married. I have a couple who married twice with the husband using different surnames and the wife declaring her self a spinster both times. After all it was unlikely anyone would check.

I bet it really did your head in sorting all THAT out ...

[coombs]

My 2xgreat gran was said to have been born in Stoke Newington, London on the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses, and in 2004 (before the release of 1911 and 1921 censuses) I went to the Tower Hamlets library to have a check at the earliest known census she would have been on, which was the 1871 census, when she was 6. While she had a 5 year old sister born "Middlesex", my ancestor's birthplace said "Sussex". I knew her mother was from Sussex and born there but always assumed she was born in London.

I was shocked at the Sussex birthplace revelation, and that is when I found out soon after she was illegitimate and her mother and very likely father moved to London when she was abut 3 or 4 months old. And taking into account how birthplaces on censuses can be unreliable. She grew up in London so assumed she was born there. She was christened in Nov 1864 in Hackney.

[Biggles50]

My Great Grandmother was just one of at least two illegitimate children her Mother had, hence no Father listed on her birth cert and Grandfather listed as her Father on her marriage certificate.  No Petty Sessions records exist online, I even visited the County Archives and they were not there for the time period in question.

Her Mother went on to marry a man who was only 10 years old when she was born so he could not be her Father.

Then DNA came to the rescue and so now I know with reasonable certainty who her Father was, it had become a waiting game and after three years the match came into play that lead on to the ID of the man, it also lead to over 100 other related DNA matches.