Steve   In your message you made the following statement.   “It seems very unlikely to me that the Catholic Church, let alone the local citizens, would have been ok with all of these illegitimate births. I would think that they would have been ostracized from the community.”   My 2 nd great grandmother had a child born out of wedlock in Houssen in 1841 before marrying my 2 nd great grandfather and having 10 children.   She herself and her mother were born out of wedlock as were 9 members of the family over three generations.   In addition one of her daughters had a child born out of wedlock.   While researching the Houssen records I found many other out of wedlock births.   When I asked about this I was told it was probably due to the cost of getting married.   Based on the number of out of wedlock births I have to conclude that it was generally an accepted condition at the time with no great stigma applied to the mother or the child.   What offended me was that, with one exception, the father is never named in the records.   The one exception was the case of the father being away on military duty.   Evan in this case the child’s surname was that of the mother.   It seems to me this was men making laws to protect men from paternity claims or responsibilities.   I believe many of the fathers took responsibility for the children but if they choose not to there was no legal record of the paternity.   Curt ----- Original Message -----