Genealogy Chat

Crista I've got one (for the life of me I can't remember which one it is, so can't find the actual cert right now), where in the fathers name column it says something like this..... John Bloggs, husband of Mary Bloggs, who she states is not the father of the child. Reputed father - Jim Smith, Gardener. If I remember rightly both the mother and the 'reputed father' signed the cert. Now its annoying me that I can't remember which - I'll be spending half of the weekend looking for it! lol. Ellen. (NB, if it makes a difference this is a Scottish cert)

Crista As far as I understand the Law, the child of a married woman is always the child of her husband - unless her husband says otherwise! In which case, as I said, it would be blank for the father's name. However, if all this came to light sometime after the Registration, the wronged husband could successfully request to be removed as Father. But the original entry would not be altered, merely a note in the margin to that effect and any subsequent issue of a Birth Cert would have a blank space for the father. And for the REAL father to appear, he would have had to be present at the Registration. All sounds mighty unlikely to me - you cannot have two fathers! (Not for Registration purposes, that is). A wild thought that occurs to me is that someone else, not the Registrar, added the name of the real father later on the Birth Cert - the aggrieved husband perhaps, or even the mother? I have never seen an adoption cert but I cannot imagine there would be two fathers on that either. Very very interesting. Marjorie

I bet I know what the little devil's up to....... He's got his father's name on it, and a clergy man (father) recorded the entry

Hi Marjorie and Helen, I'll see what I can find out. The person involved was adopted if that makes a difference. He thinks his birth mother was married but having an affair so I don't know if that would explain 2 fathers being listed. Crista

Hi Crista I've not heard of this either - just doesn't seem credible does it ? Are you not able to ask your friend for an explanation ? I couldn't resist ! I'd also be interested in the reason for this if you ever find out. Helen K

Crista No, I haven't! I cannot imagine the circumstances in which a Registrar would put TWO names on a birth cert for the father because that would clearly be a case of 'father unknown'. Even if the mother later changed her mind, or was forced by the 'non-father' to remove his name from the cert, the original birth entry cannot be altered.(But it can be annoted in the margin - not the same thing as having two fathers on your BC though). Very interesting and I would love to hear any follow-up to this. Marjorie

Has anyone seen this before? I haven't seen the cert myself but a friend claims he has 2 fathers listed on his birth cert. Crista