We have an ancestor in the family whose parentage was kind of hushed up. I discovered that he was listed as illegitimate on his birth certificate and his so called parents, John and Catherine Wilson, were actually his grandparents. I guess this was very common, what seems to have happened is his grandparents have taken the child as their own and raised him. It explained so much...
Oh my, there was a very big earthquake as I was typing that. I think it's over.. anyway..
The interesting thing I discovered was that when I looked him up on the 1881 census, living in Pathhead, Crichton, Midlothian, there he is living with his birth mother Isabella, the grandparents... and another youngster of 2 year olds, Catherine. Too young to be the grandparents... suspicious, huh? Well after looking up Catherine, she is also illegitimate... surprise surprise...
...but Isabella isn't the mother! Turns out she has a TWIN sister Helen who also had an illegitimate child, just two years previously. Both mothers were late teens or early 20s, and I guess the grandparents of these children have tried to look after the family and raise the babes.
Now I would dearly like to know if the Kirk Sessions recorded their guilt or suspicions as to parentage.
The story in the family is that Isabella was working for a doctor in Edinburgh and that he got her pregnant and dismissed. Now that I find out Helen also had a child out of wedlock, I wonder if there was indeed a doctor, and whether Helen was also involved with him. Or whether they were both simply having relationship with some farm labourers...
I wonder if they were identical... man, the imagination runs away!
I thought I'd share the interesting story... also, if anyone has any tips on accessing these Kirk Session Records, I'd be grateful. I know the NAS has them. I've heard they've even been digitised but unfortunately not being in the UK I don't have access to a library. Perhaps the NAS offer a paid service to find and send copies of records like the NA does?
It just depends on what you're used to! Once I was teaching a class when there was a good-sized earthquake. The big clock on the wall crashed down, narrowly missing one student's head. We all just looked at each other and then someone said, "Shouldn't we be under the table?" Ha ha. The after shocks went on for about 6 months and my small son would just roll his eyes as his high chair skated across the floor... 
But there is still the ongoing talk about them eventually being put up on ScotlandsPeople. I think there is some problem with logistics-- How to search? Should payment be by number of pages or some other unit?