Genealogy Chat

Flogging through an old Parish Register today i came across this entry several times, next to the name of a child baptised to single women. I assumed it was polite for illegitimate, however, a bit further on I came across a child baptised to married parents, but in the margin it said "chance child". Whatever can it mean?

Maybe the child was born before they were married? I did wonder about "change"-child, but that's statistically highly unlikely for a whole group of single women! Christine

you could still be right. as unplesent as it is this child could be the result of a rape. or as you do not say how far back the book whent Some land lords uses to have first rights to endencherd workers but we are talking middle ages here. or it could be just an unpland or unwhanted child. some times grand perants took over from unwed dughters and the prist might of known this.

I found the question posed on a RootsWeb message board; this was the answer given (but I don't know if it's correct: " ..... however, a "chance child" is an illegitimate/bastard child."

So presumably although the married couple were the child's parents the father wasn't the biologicallly correct one, or he was the right father but not married to the mother at the time of the child's birth!

Thankyou everybody - how very confusing! This PR was late 1700s. At the same time the Vicar started writing "chance child" next to baptisms, he suddenly turned practically the whole congregation into Paupers. Amost every second funeral conducted was that of "A PAUPER". I wondered if there was some scam going on, if you were a pauper, presumably you didnt pay for a funeral? Did he just have a social conscience? He did this for about five years, then stopped again. Several of my ancestors are named as Paupers, but from other information I have, they certainly werent Paupers!