Illegitimate or not

[Pauline]

I was interested in the bit in the latest newsletter about John Calver's marriage certificate and the missing fathers' details.

When my grandfather married his first wife, no name or details were given for her father. Yet I likewise know she was not illegitimate, and have her birth certificate and parents' marriage certificate. No one was being a perfect gentleman here, and I can only speculate that she may not have known her father, having apparently been brought up by an aunt, her mother having died when she was very young. Or maybe she felt he'd abandoned her - as an adult she used her mother's surname not his.

I have come across another situation of missing fathers' details - a particular clergyman (in at least two different parishes) seemed to routinely omit any reference to fathers. It was not until about 1850 he started doing things properly - too late surely for it to be just ignorance in the early days of general registration.

It's easy to assume a missing father on a marriage certificate means illegitimacy, but it's clearly not always the case.

 

[peter]

I have come across another situation of missing fathers' details - a particular clergyman (in at least two different parishes) seemed to routinely omit any reference to fathers. It was not until about 1850 he started doing things properly - too late surely for it to be just ignorance in the early days of general registration.

It's possible that the information was in one copy of the register - the one that ended up in the hands of the local registrar - but not the one retained by the church.

 

[Pauline]

It's possible that the information was in one copy of the register - the one that ended up in the hands of the local registrar - but not the one retained by the church.

Apparently not on this occasion - it was finding the information missing from the certificate which prompted the check in the parish register. So it seems both copies of the register were lacking.

 

[peter]

Apparently not on this occasion - it was finding the information missing from the certificate which prompted the check in the parish register. So it seems both copies of the register were lacking.

That's correct - provided that the certificate you're referring to came from the local registrar, and not the GRO.

 

[canadianbeth]

My Dad's registration of birth states 'father unknown', which is why I am having so much trouble finding him. I do know the name my Dad told me
(he used that surname after emigrating to Canada) but it is far too common to be of any help.

 

[peter]

My Dad's registration of birth states 'father unknown', which is why I am having so much trouble finding him. I do know the name my Dad told me
(he used that surname after emigrating to Canada) but it is far too common to be of any help.

Whether or not the information your father gave you is correct, surely DNA offers the best chance of solving the mystery? See these recent articles.

 

[jorghes]

My illegitimate g-grandfather wrote his step-father's name on his marriage certificate - it is a little obvious, since his surname doesn't match that he has given as his father, however as was pointed out to me, that was probably the only father he'd ever known since his mother married him when he was 2.
He and his older brother (both illegitimate) have very distinct middle names, so I think their mother named her sons after their actual fathers. Unfortunately my g-grandfather's biological father's surname seems to have been "Jones".

 

[canadianbeth]

I read the articles about the autosomal DNA but get the impression that I would get dozens of possibilities with no real information. My Dad was registered as Jack Joyce (no middle name) and he wrote in my little birthday book (which has gone missing*) that his father's name was George Roberts. He was Jack Roberts when he married my mother, and when he joined the Army during the war, and both my aunts also called themselves Roberts in Canada, although they were also Joyce in England (also illegitimate). (he also said both his parents were from Dublin, but I can find no evidence of that at all; in fact it appears that my grandmother was born in England)

*that birthday book has been with me for many years and only recently went missing. I only kept it because it has his and my mother's handwriting in it.

 

[peter]

I read the articles about the autosomal DNA but get the impression that I would get dozens of possibilities with no real information

That's right - you'd get a lot of matches and a lot of data, and you'll need to turn that data into information using logic - it's rather like doing a jigsaw puzzle. As I think I made clear in my articles, DNA testing isn't a simpler solution than traditional research, and it isn't an easier way to find cousins than completing your My Ancestors page - but when those other methods fail, it's often the only thing left.

 

[peter]

My illegitimate g-grandfather wrote his step-father's name on his marriage certificate - it is a little obvious, since his surname doesn't match that he has given as his father, however as was pointed out to me, that was probably the only father he'd ever known since his mother married him when he was 2.

It's also common for younger children to adopt their stepfather's surname. Sometimes they revert to their birth surname when they marry, but that isn't always the case.

Of course, there may be times when the stepfather is also the natural father. When my 27 year-old 3G grandmother, already a mother of 4, married for the first time to a fairly well-off 71 year-old (with a daughter who was old enough to be her mother), her two youngest children took their stepfather's surname. As they also benefited from his will (he died just 2 years after the wedding) it's possible he thought they were his children.

 

[jorghes]

It's also common for younger children to adopt their stepfather's surname. Sometimes they revert to their birth surname when they marry, but that isn't always the case.

Of course, there may be times when the stepfather is also the natural father. When my 27 year-old 3G grandmother, already a mother of 4, married for the first time to a fairly well-off 71 year-old (with a daughter who was old enough to be her mother), her two youngest children took their stepfather's surname. As they also benefited from his will (he died just 2 years after the wedding) it's possible he thought they were his children.

My g-grandfather is only listed under his step-father's name once that I can find - in the 1891 census when he was 7. His older brother (also illegitimate, presumably different fathers) was living with his grandfather and did, it seems, until their grandfather died, at which point both brothers were living with their mother and their step father, under her maiden name and listed as "step sons" in the 1901 census.
After that they both got married and for at least my g-grandfather (I'm still investigating details about his brother) lived under his mother's maiden name for the rest of his life and gave that name to his children and grandchildren. There was no secret it seems about my g-grandfather's illegitimacy either, as my mother told me that he was illegitimate quite freely when I first started to construct the maternal side of my family tree. (There is no family knowledge that I have been made aware of that pertains to any possible fathers, but I believe they're fairly certain it wasn't his step-father.)