General Chat

My tree is loaded with illegitimacy, including me lol, and would be a lot worse if it wasn't for the amount of shotgun weddings:)

My materal grandma was illegitimate, she was one of two daughters my grt gran had before she married, also grt grans sister also had two daughters before she eventually married, they also had a cousin who had five children and never married, She is on the 1901 census as a single women with her children and they lived in a small village so everyone must have known.
Gill

Am not to sure about my granddad its still a mystery that I cannot solve yet

No illegitimate as yet found. But was most surprised to see that my own father was on the way when my grandparents married. - Now if I had done that - well all hell would have broken out lol.

Tina

Hi Janet

Very good point. Yes, Mary may have nursed Esther Roberts through her illness. Esther had tuberculosis, so was ill for a while before she died.

Maybe, she was a friend and fell for Esthers husband Thomas by getting pregnant. Thomas only had 1 other child who was then aged 12. Of course, Thomas had to wait until Esther popped it (pardon the slang lol)before he could make an honest woman of Mary. After her dad wed, she went to live with her aunty.

ForgetmenotBlue that is amazing. I wonder if there are any stories to tell from the past. My Walders were wheelwrights, and when John died in 1876 he had an estate worth £4000.

Ben

Hi Ben, How wierd to read your thread and to know Warninglid, it is just down the road from me, I also knew of some Walders that lived in the village I'm in, in fact there graves are in our local Church yard.

On the illigitimacy, I have many in my family but none that married the girls they got pregnant.

Gillie XX

OOOO Kitty I had a lady with Akehurst for her name when I was a child, she died in my road!!

Benjamin in Cowfold Akehurst's by the dozens!

xx

Ben,
Could Mary Ann have been the nurse to Thomas's first wife?

Of course a single pregnant woman would have very little means of supporting herself and we tend to forget that marriages were not made in heaven they were a way of investing in your and your childrens future. Equally, a man looked for a wife to keep house for him, and if widowed he would need someone pronto to look after the kids.

Not only was my grandfather illegitimate but when his mother eventually married his father I suspect that the marriage was bigamous.

my ggg grandmother on my mum's side had a daughter 5 years after my ggg grandfather died & 2 years before she married her 2nd husband.
Then the daughter had a son!
Also my sister & 3 brothers were, my parents married 9mths before i was born. now that was a shock to my family. lol
val

Only about 10% of my ancestors weren't expecting their first child when they married.

My Mum was three when her parents married each other. My grandad had to wait for his 1st wife to die as you couldn't divorce someone who was in a mental hospital. My Nan hadn't bothered to divorce her 1st 'cos grandad's wife wasn't expected to die.

Hi Kitty

Yes I would agree. Thos is my biological ancestor.

By the way, what names have you in Cowfold? Mine is Walder and Agate. 1700s.

Ben

Marion....Ducton, worthing, angmering and cowfold mostly.

Benjamin..............that seems a likely explanation.

Warninglid is not too far from Haywards Heath and is within easy reach of Brighton, so maybe Thomas secretly visited his mistress while his wife was ill back in Brighton or something.

I dont know why with all the evidence I have, but it is nice to sometimes ask for others opinions on family tree findings.

my lovely Mum was illegitimate as were seven of her siblings!!! only her youngest sister [younger than me] knew her father - my Mum didn't really have a clue who her father was so no family tree on that side!!

Wow Marion.....................both sides of mine and my husbands family are Sussex born and bred for generations.

my mother was, Her parents WERE married but not to each other, She hid this fact for years (tee hee)
But he did put his name on her birth cert.

My grandfather and his 2 younger brothers were all apparently illigitimate, Their mother changed her/their surname after all 3 were born, which would make sense if she had married in the interim. However her brother also changed his name.
I've been unable to find a marriage, or any clue as to why her brother would also change his name. Family verbal history suggests that the 2 younger boys had the same father and my grandfather was the son of someone else - a "wealthy landowner". His whole personna was very different from his brothers apparently, so that would make sense.
I can see no point in my ggma changing the surname simply to make them appear legitimate, as they were in a small village and everyone knew everyone. This is my mission in life to find my great grandfather's name. When I heard about the landowner and discovered that the family were living on a farm owned by the Honourable FW, I chased him down for a while but eventually gave up. Apparently the birth father left my grandfather an inheritance in his will, but his uncle 'drank it'. All very frustrating.
mary
(who doesn't know if she is using her correct maiden name LOL)

too many to mention:-))
I have been shocked at some of them too:-)lol

oh yes OH,,its thrived without fathers,,,,

there are at least 12,,,,,,,,bn on other side ,,,,,,,,,!!