Genealogy Chat

My 3x gt grandparents started having children together in 1837 and after 8 children and 26 years married in 1863.

I have not seen the other birth certs but my 2x gt grandfathers cert in 1844 looks like they were married no mention that she had been married before whether widowed or not? just a formally name, which was her maiden name.

On the 1841 census they are listed living together but she was using her married name with one son from that marriage and he was listed with two young daughters...it turns out from the baptisms of the girls that she was their mother so why they did not lie on that census I dont know...they lied on the next two :-D

if they were born outside marriage then they were illegitimate.

;-) :-D

Roy

The link wouldn't open from the google search page - i'd just typed it out without the http bit ;-)

DetEcTive, the link will not work possibly because it has no http, The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) at the front of the web Addy

You would need to change your settings to allow this

Roy

Just tryed the site it looks like they have a problem?

Yes, it was sad that she was labeled Illegitimate. On the other hand, Workhouses were the fore-runners of hospitals. Women often went there for free help in child birth. ;-)

"The history of the workhouse" by Peter Higginbotham is very informative.

www.workhouses.org.uk except the link won't open for some reason.

Having sent for my mothers birth certificate I tried to track down the address where she was born. Having no luck I looked for help at our local Family History centre. It turned out to be one of the addresses given on B,Certs instead of "" Workhouse "".
Very little records survived the war but was able to get a copy of births from June to November1912. Out of the 30 births listed only 4 were marked legitimate. sadly my dear old mum was one of the 26 marked illegitimate.

Did she ever know? I think not. Bad enough for my grandmother to be in a workhouse but to have her baby born there too touches me greatly.

How times have changed in 100 years!!

Thanks for that. These eight children were born between 1863 and 1880 so unless the Act was retrospective I guess this doesn't apply in this case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimacy_Act_1926

Roy

I suppose that legally they were illegitimate.
A 2xg uncle of mine moved in with a widow after his 1st wife died. They had several children over a 15 year period, but didn´t marry until the youngest was about 5. No idea why not.

according to the dictionary illegitimate means born to parents not married to each other ,so when they marry i would think they are now legitimised ?

It's just a question for curiosity's sake . They are my ancestors and they are going on my tree. Ijust wondered thats all

What does it matter if the children are "legitimate" or not? If he's named as their father on their birth certificates then he's the father. I don't think it matters whether or not the parents were married at the time.

I have just found an ancestor who had eight children with the same woman before they subsequently married and had a further four.

My quesstion is does the marriage automatically legitimise the eight children born prior to the marriage?