Hypothetical Question.....

[Lizzie]

A young girl comes down from the Highlands, she meets a young man in Edinburgh. They fall in love. He is from a very wealthy Aberdeen family.
She get's pregnant. She arrives at Royal Maternity Hospital April 1853.
Records in the Hospital state - Father is a Medical Student and gives his correct address in Aberdeen and adds his signature. The child is given his surname.
The mother marries another man some years later and has other children.
The child always keeps her natural father's name until her marriage. Then she uses her father's surname as a middle name. Her natural grandparents do not recoginise her.
The question is, are her children and their children the ancesters of her father's family in today's world?
The father arrived in Melbourne Australia 1860 and died there 1864.

Lizzie

esavage@rogers.com

[AnneM]

Hi there

Not sure about the point of the question but without a doubt the daughter's children are the descendents of the medical student. Whether he has any other descendents does not seem clear. However knowing medical students I would not be surprised!

Anne

[Jack]

Hello Lizzie,

My tuppence worth - i hope it makes sense, but more so i've got this right!

If the medical student was the proven father, then it doesn't matter if his parents (her G-parents) recognised her existence or not. She is still their G-daughter; a direct blood relation no matter what.

The daur would be the ½ sister to any of her natural father's other children - so descendants of both would be related today (½ cousins etc of some kind).
The parents of the medical student being the direct ancestors of both sets of descendants.

If the father had siblings then their descendants are also related to the daughter's descendants because they still all share the same ancestors - "the G-parents".

The daur's father's siblings would be uncles & aunts, and their children would be 1st cousins to her.

Jack

[Lizzie]

Thank you Ann
I found no record of him ever becoming a doctor. He did however get an M.A. from Aberdeen University in 1854.

I was concerned about it being an illegitimate birth which today would not have had such dire consequences as did at that time.

Lizzie

[Duplicate post removed - Site Admin]

[Lizzie]

Thank you Jack,

He died Single according to the death certificate.

Lizzie

[Jack]

Hello again Lizzie,

If you are meaning are the children (and their descendants) of her mother's later marriage related to the medical student's family then the answer would be no.

But the mother's other children would be ½ brothers or ½ sisters to her daur with the medical student.

Jack

[Lizzie]

No Jack, it was only the father I was speaking. He had no other child other than this one b. in Edinburgh.

Lizzie

[StewL]

Lizzie

My two bobs worth too.

I would think that as the father didnt have any other children, then "illegitmate" or not, she would be his only heir. I think that that would also apply back in those days, even though she was born "on the wrong side of the sheets".

Considering, that he also acknolwedged his paternity at her birth, would also be a factor in establishing her lineage.

[Lizzie]

Your two bob's worth are well noted Stew - and the rest of the story is - the mother of his child spent the last days of her life in the Poorhouse at Inversk.

Lizzie

[AnneM]

That's really sad. Goes to show that the Victorian melodramas were not far off the truth in some cases. cue chorus of "She was poor but she was honest"

When I was talking about descendents I was not thinking about any question of inheritance in a legal sense. That is much more complicated and in this case would have been doubly complicated by the fact that the child's father died while living in Australia.

Anne