This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: Forfarian Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.britisles.scotland.ans.general/5899.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Quote: "And many illegitimate children used their father's surname through life, even those born after 1855 who were registered with the mother's surname." There is a reason for this. The rules say that an illegitimate child must be registered in its mother's name. However if the father accompanies the mother to the registrar's office when the birth is first registered, and signs the birth certificate, the child can also be registered in its father's name. So there will be many cases where the entire parish knows perfectly well who the father is, and the child is known by his surname, yet it is only registered in its mother's name because he would not or could not accompany her when she went to register the birth. The father's name cannot be added to the birth certificate at a later date. However the birth may be *indexed* under his surname if either (a) the mother goes to court and gets a paternity order, in which case this will be recorded in the Register of Corrected Entries or (b) the parents, having subsequently married, decide to re-register the birth at a later date, which can be many years after the event. The best place to look for information about illegitimate births around 1835 would be the Kirk Session minutes. These are in the National Archives of Scotland www.nas.gov.uk and have been digitised, but are not available online, so you would need someone who is going to Register House in Edinburgh to look this up on your behalf. There are some other archives in Scotland which have access to the NAS' 'Virtual Volumes' of digitised documents, but I do not have a complete list of these. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.