General tips re: illegitimate children

[g eli]

I have occasionally found the fathers name on the baptismal record in remarks by the vicar.

[maddys52]

The only other source are the Quarter session records which might reveal an
illegitimacy order against the father.

And sometimes these are mentioned in newspapers, if for example they weren't being paid etc.

[Jomot]

I think illegitimate births rarely had a fathers name until 1875.

More likely the other way around, as after 1874 the father (if not married to the mother) could not be named on a birth certificate unless he was also present at the registration. 

[coombs]

I think illegitimate births rarely had a fathers name until 1875.

More likely the other way around, as after 1874 the father (if not married to the mother) could not be named on a birth certificate unless he was also present at the registration.

I think there was a rule pre 1874/1875 as well, I read somewhere. I remember Clara Dixon's helpful BMD website said something about it. For example I have a ancestor sibling who had an illegitimate child in 1869, no father mentioned, but the child's middle name was Luff, and the mother later married a Luff in 1873.

[Jomot]

It wasn't stated in the original (1836) legislation, but the 1874 Act makes specific provision (Clause 7)

1836: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1836_(33)_Registration_of_Births_%26c._A_bill_for_registering_Births_Deaths_and_Marriages_in_England

1874: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/37-38/88/enacted

[ghallen]

Thank you for all the tips!

[DianaCanada]

One of my ancestors named his father on his marriage certificate.  He also had that man’s surname as his middle name.
Newspapers can be a great resource.  Recently found a relative, a middle-aged married man, who was charged with maintenance for a child born to an employee. The scandal seems to have been the reason the family relocated to Essex from Sussex (early 20th c.).

[brigidmac]

Sometimes the mother took the birth father to court and certificates known as bastardy orders or affiliation orders can be found in local record office .

There is a chance that the trial would be recorded in local newspapers too.

 I have an affiliation order from 1900 for my grandmother .her mother also put  her daughter's middle name as the surname of her birth father but used a different middle name at the baptism 3 months later once she had secured payments

[AntonyMMM]

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.