It is quite true that not all priests are alike. And therefore, not all parishes and communities either. Now that you mention it, I was very surprised to see the village registers labeled "Marriages and Divorces" and "Births and Adoptions". I have never seen this anywhere else in the 1800's. Steve  ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Sun, July 17, 2011 6:58:58 PM Subject: Re: [A-L] ALSACE-LORRAINE Digest, Vol 6, Issue 194 "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." I found the answers to this very interesting.  I think any of them is worth pursuing, if you want to really know.  I have just a thought or two to add. One thing I know from my own research is that the things we assume, such as earlier generations being uniformly Victorian in mores, may not be true in all cases...