Genealogy Chat

Thanks Jill,
It,s just a theory i have been thinking about.I could be on the wrong track .

Unless it was a very small village where the vicar knew the circumstances it's really very unlikely. He might have made a note on the baptism register about the child being the child of another man - but can't see that being common practice.

Aside from mother not being married - or perhaps being widowed for more than 9 months - I can't think of any other reason that would make a child illegitimate. Legally, if the mother is married then her husband is deemed to be the father of the child.

However, I have one case in my family history where one of my trollope-y gr gr gr grandma's left her husband's name off the birth cert of one of her children and did not show her own maiden name either. I have serious doubts about that child's paternity as I have found evidence pointing to another man and another "illegitimate" child. Just no proof.

So, if mother has left the father's box blank and yet she is married it may be her way of saying that her husband is not the father.

Jill

If a woman was pregnant when she got married and her husband was not the childs father,but the child was given her husbands surname. Would the child be recorded as illegitimate in parish records.What other times would cause a child be recorded as beeing illigitimate.
Thanks to any one who can help.
regards Chris.