Any Hope of Finding Missing Fathers (Illegitimacy)?.....

Birth, Marriage, Death

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scotincanada
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:12 am
Location: Barrie, ON, Canada

Any Hope of Finding Missing Fathers (Illegitimacy)?.....

Post by scotincanada » Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:30 pm

Hi,

My grandmother was a so-called illegitimate birth abt. 1905, Argyll, Scotland. Haven't seen her birth reg. (assume it's too "recent" to access?) yet, but I'm thinking there will be no father listed. Living folks once heard his surname, but have long forotten it now. No chance it would be on her marriage reg. from 1930s?? Am I doomed never to know what this missing part of my ancestry is? I'm not very hopeful, but thought I would ask.

Mary
in Canada

AndrewP
Site Admin
Posts: 6189
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:36 am
Location: Edinburgh

Post by AndrewP » Wed Mar 16, 2005 5:33 pm

Some fathers were named on birth certificates of illegitimate children. Others, were added later, and therefore appeared in the RCE (Register of Corrected Entries). If there was an entry in the RCE, then there was a stamp mark put on the original certificate indicating a volume and page number of the RCE.

Also, it was not uncommon for him to be named on marriage or death certificates. I think it depended a lot whether he later married the child's mother; or if not married later, if his name was mentioned or not. The parent information on marriage and death certificates was entirely dependant on what information was known by the person completing the registration paperwork.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

bobj-kirk
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:49 am
Location: Yellowknife, NT, Canada

Post by bobj-kirk » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:07 pm

This is my first post here, so here goes -

My experience with ScotlandPeople:
- Most of my illegitmates had a father listed on the birth registration.
- In my family, they would usually give the child the father's surname.
- When they didn't give the child the father's surname, they sometimes gave it as a middle name.
- Most of my illegitimates were marked on the death registration.
- When the death death registration is marked and both names are available, the death is indexed by both names and can be looked up by either on ScotlandsPeople.
- You can sometimes find a reference to the son or daughter as informant on the parent's death certificate. I have used this to confirm an otherwise lost illegitimate parent.

IIIRC, I have read that they stopped marking registrations as illegitmate around 1920, and that they also stopped marking Birth Certificates as well, even when the original registration was so marked. So, I suggest you get a copy of the registration (from ScotlandsPeople or wherever) rather than a birth certificate.

- Bob

DavidWW
Posts: 5057
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:47 pm

Post by DavidWW » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:21 pm

bobj-kirk wrote:This is my first post here, so here goes -

My experience with ScotlandPeople:
- Most of my illegitmates had a father listed on the birth registration.
- In my family, they would usually give the child the father's surname.
- When they didn't give the child the father's surname, they sometimes gave it as a middle name.
- Most of my illegitimates were marked on the death registration.
- When the death death registration is marked and both names are available, the death is indexed by both names and can be looked up by either on ScotlandsPeople.
- You can sometimes find a reference to the son or daughter as informant on the parent's death certificate. I have used this to confirm an otherwise lost illegitimate parent.

IIIRC, I have read that they stopped marking registrations as illegitmate around 1920, and that they also stopped marking Birth Certificates as well, even when the original registration was so marked. So, I suggest you get a copy of the registration (from ScotlandsPeople or wherever) rather than a birth certificate.

- Bob
Be aware of the following.

If you order a formal copy, - an "extract", - of a birth register entry where the original birth was shown as illegitimate, but there was Sheriff Court action resulting in a declaration of paternity which in turn led to an RCE linked to the original register entry, there will be no indication, other than what follows, on the typed extract of the original illegitimacy.

The indications are that the format of the mother's name will be Jane SMITH, rather than Jane SMITH MS BROWN; and there will be no info on the place and date of the marriage of the parents, unless, of course, there was a subsequent marriage and the birth register entry has been annotated to that effect.

As always, quite simple :?

Davie