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Questions tagged [illegitimate]

A child born to unmarried parents.

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8 votes
1 answer
6k views

What are some possible reasons that a father's name is missing from a birth certificate - England?

I posted a previous question about my great-grandmother before but I ordered her birth certificate from the New GRO index https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp However, ...
2 votes
2 answers
85 views

What was the standard for requiring an absolution in 1700's Denmark?

I understand that an absolution is an event to clear a couple from the sin of having a child out of wedlock. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Scandinavia_Absolution If a child was born out of ...
2 votes
1 answer
92 views

Searching for "Unknown father" of a child born to an unmarried mother in Poland

I've been helping a friend to research his Polish ancestors and we have a lingering mystery to solve. Friend's grandmother, Lillian, was born in 1902 in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region of Poland (German ...
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

How were illegitimate sons raised in Scotland in the late 1800s?

My great grandfather was apparently an illegitimate child, the oldest of the family, and it has been said that back in the day (1877, Scotland) it was common practice for such children to be raised by ...
1 vote
0 answers
60 views

Interpreting parentage in a 17th century German marriage record when the father is not mentioned

It's been my experience over the past year of reviewing ~500 years of marriage records from the same town that in the later 1600s through the earlier 1800s they almost always used the same rough ...
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

How is it possible that my ancestor left the workhouse so quickly with a baby?

I am still researching my 2x great-grandmother. Ann Norah O'Brien BIRTH ABT 1860 • St Pancras, Middlesex, England DEATH 16 JAN 1923 • Exeter, Devonshire, England, United Kingdom She had 5 ...
1 vote
1 answer
982 views

What are spurious baptisms?

In the Parish Records for Lapley, Staffordshire, England, there are a number of baptisms followed by the word "spurious". Is there any interpretation possible other than "illegitimate" for these? ...
2 votes
2 answers
257 views

Reading information about illegitimate children in Brackenhammer family, Kirchheim, Germany

There was a lot of information about many different illegitimate children in family, however it is hard to read. Can anyone help? The father had two wives, the first 10 kids are from his first wife, ...
2 votes
2 answers
180 views

Why might someone be listed amongst "Additional Individuals Bounded" in 1806 Cornwall Bastardy Papers?

On 24 Nov 1806, my 4th great grandfather Joseph Billin was listed amongst the "Additional Individuals Bounded" in the Helston Bastardy Papers 1729-1823. At the time "JENKIN Elizabeth, Helston, ...
3 votes
1 answer
140 views

Linking Sojourners to Illegitimacy at Launceston, Cornwall in 1790s?

I've traced some relatives to Cornwall in the late 1790s,1800's. If I'm right, the first children born to the couple in question were born illegitimately in St Thomas by Launceston, and the remainder ...
5 votes
1 answer
111 views

Verifying illegitimacy of 1911 German birth?

In trying to trace my grandfather's immigration I have discovered that my grandmother (his wife) bears the same surname as her mother. She was born in 1911, but I can't find her birth record at the ...
6 votes
0 answers
225 views

Finding archival records for tracing father of illegitimate child in mid 1880s County Down, Ireland?

In a couple of weeks, I will be travelling to Ireland for a two-week vacation. Part of my trip will be spent in the Belfast area, visiting both the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI)...
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Tracing fathers of illegitimate children in Scotland in the 1870's?

In the Scottish Borders in the 19th Century, a significant percentage of children were illegitimate (no father was named on the birth certificate). What sources (courts, churches, etc) exist for ...
3 votes
1 answer
513 views

If mother's maiden name is listed as same as child's last name, is child illegitimate?

If the Tennessee death certificate for John Tindell (1836-1915) leaves the father's name blank and fills in the mother's maiden name as Jane Tindell, should I infer that John was illegitimate, or is ...
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to reach out to strangers that could be relatives from an illegitimate birth?

I am trying to determine the best approach to reach out to a group of people that may be related to my immediate family but these people could be surprised by the news. After my grandparent's death, ...
4 votes
1 answer
403 views

Looking for information on fathers of children born out of wedlock

My aunt had a baby out of wedlock in Florida in the late 1930s or as late as 1941. My cousin has asked me to find out who his father is. Were mothers required to name the father back then, and that ...