Illigitimate Child

[DavidWW]

Can anyone help with the rules for registering a child in Scotland in 1866.If the father of a child died before the child was born would the mother have to register it as illigitimate. The child is registered as Martin(fathers name) or Hodge(mothers maiden name). This is the same on the death certificate as the child only lived for 11 weeks.
The mother is a widow on the birth and death certificates and the last date I can find that shows the husband was alive is in the 1861 census. I cannot find a death for the father but I suspect he did not die in Scotland.
I do not think this is the child of someone else she met after her husbands death as all the records show she lived on her own or with one of her other children until she died in 1911.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Roy

Good question!

G.T. Bisset-Smith's Vital Registration - A Manual of the Law and Practice concerning The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages: Registration Acts for Scotland; with Relative Notes on Vaccinations and the Census, Forms, and Tables of Fees &c., Edinburgh, William Green & Sons, Law Publishers, 1907, is clear on the matter, - if they were married, then no problem, the father could be shown on the birth register entry, and no question of the child being shown as illegitimate.

In the case of illegitimacy, howver, that situation would become complicated. The above source states, -

"Registrars are forbidden to enter the name of any person as the father of an illegitimate child, save at the the joint request of the mother and the person acknowledging the paternity, - who must attend at the Registration and sign the Register along with the mother."

A court procedure was always open to the mother to prove paternity, but whether this option was open when the man in question was dead, I don't know.

When paternity was proven via a court action, then an entry would be made inthe Register of Corrected Entries, and an annotation to that effect made alongside the original Register entry.


Note that there were no such resctrictions regarding the name of the father for a marriage register or death register entry. Sometimes the form of the entry will give the game away, i.e. the entry will be of the form John SMITH and Mary BROWN, instead of John SMITH and Mary SMITH MS BROWN. Sometimes the father's name will be prefixed by "alleged" or "reputed". Note, however, that any marriage could have been irregular.

David

[wini]

David,

How could a mother prove Paternity in those days before DNA testing became possible in the 1950's

wini

[DavidWW]

That was the general, now the specific.

IGI gives the marriage of Sarah Ann HODGE and Mitchell MARTIN as 31Dec1846 in Old Machar. And, as noted, there's no Scottish death record for him. If he died in Scotland prior to 1855 then Walter is indeed illegitimate!.

If the 1st 1/4 death in 1865 in Kensington is correct, then he couldn't have been the father of Walter, born 08Aug1866, so that the entry as "illegimate" is correct.

On Walter's birth register entry, note that "or HODGE" has been added later in a different hand.

In later such records it was normal for there to be an annotation in the parents' column that the mother declared that her previous husband was not the father of the child, up to a period of a few more months than 9, just to be safe !!

David

[DavidWW]

David,

How could a mother prove Paternity in those days before DNA testing became possible in the 1950's

wini

wini

By taking the alleged father to court and getting him to admit paternity, or prove via evidence to the satisfaction of the Sheriff or judge the the man was the father.

David

[Lizzie]

David -

If a daughter is born in Maternity Hospital Edinburgh 1853. The father gives his name address occupation etc. as being the father, also gives the child his surname.
The mother marries another man five years later and 1861 census records her having the husband's surname. In 1873 she marries and her name is back to her birth name, and REAL parents given as recorded at her birth. There is never any mention of her being illigitimate until she seeks Poor Relief snd here it is, ILLIGITIMATE daughter of, and names her real parents.

If there was a paper they both signed as parents of the child, where might it be?

Lizzie

[DavidWW]

David -

If a daughter is born in Maternity Hospital Edinburgh 1853. The father gives his name address occupation etc. as being the father, also gives the child his surname.
The mother marries another man five years later and 1861 census records her having the husband's surname. In 1873 she marries and her name is back to her birth name, and REAL parents given as recorded at her birth. There is never any mention of her being illigitimate until she seeks Poor Relief snd here it is, ILLIGITIMATE daughter of, and names her real parents.

If there was a paper they both signed as parents of the child, where might it be?

Lizzie

The only possibilitiesa are, firstly, a baptismal certicate, but that would need to have survived over 150 years in the family, but it wouldn't necessarily have the parents' signatures; with an outside chance of a kirk session record, - outside only as kirk sessions no longer had the same control over their church members as in earlier eras.

As he had already admitted paternity, it's unlikely that the mother would have taken action against him in the Sherif Court.

David

[ROY M]

Hi David and Wini
Thanks for your replies. David thanks for the rules on registration and like you I see the dates don't add up for Mitchell to be the father, I'll wait and see what his death certificate says when I get it from GRO.

Wini, I have another birth certificate from StCyrus in Kincardineshire for another relation who was born in Feb 1778, but the certificate is actually an oath sworn in front of a Justice of the Peace in Nov 1814 by two women Ann Robert and Katherine Dingwall stating that Alexander Martin had a son called James and that James presently resides in Scotston. I assume this was an early paternity case.
Hope this helps

[ROY M]

Many thanks for everyones help with this one, and a really big thanks to Gina and David.
The death that Gina gave me from the freebmd site was the Mitchell Martin I was looking for. The certificate from GRO showed he died on the 4th March1865 so he could not have been Walters father and the illigitimate registration for Walter is correct.
Many Thanks Again
Roy