The vicar went off to wet the baby's head and when it came to fill in the details he had forgotten the dad's name!!! It could also be that the husband was dead and the vicar thought the father was a different person in the village/town or the father was absent abroad. Liz -----Original Message----- From: DERBYSGEN [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joan M via DERBYSGEN Sent: 03 June 2017 15:15 To: 'Derbyshire genealogy' Cc: Joan M Subject: [DBY] Baptisms where father isn't named Hi, Apart from illegitimacy, is there any other reason that the father wouldn't be named? Thanks Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com
Liz is most probably right but, in legal terms, isn't a child born to a married couple legitimate, unless there's proof to the contrary? I know that's easy now with DNA testing, but it would have been harder in the past. Could a vicar or registrar just decide he didn't believe the baby was the child of the husband? Margaret On 04/06/2017 09:45, Liz via DERBYSGEN wrote: The vicar went off to wet the baby's head and when it came to fill in the details he had forgotten the dad's name!!! It could also be that the husband was dead and the vicar thought the father was a different person in the village/town or the father was absent abroad. Liz -----Original Message----- From: DERBYSGEN [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joan M via DERBYSGEN Sent: 03 June 2017 15:15 To: 'Derbyshire genealogy' Cc: Joan M Subject: [DBY] Baptisms where father isn't named Hi, Apart from illegitimacy, is there any other reason that the father wouldn't be named? Thanks Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
Hello, As others have pointed out, much has to do with local custom when it comes to parish records, and how much was known about the circumstances. I have quite a number of illegitimate births in my family tree, typically recorded with a ‘reputed child of ‘ or similar phrase. My most amusing case is a great great grandmother; ‘naughty Ellen’ I call her: Married in 1840s, already pregnant, child baptised in local parish church with both parents named, as you would expect - surname Davies Second ‘Davies’ child baptised in the same church 4 yrs later, but only the mother’s name given – this suggests that her husband has disappeared/died, everyone knows that he is not the father (including the Rector) and so no father’s name given. 3 more illegitimate ‘Davies’ children born over the following decade – Heaven knows who fathered them! Child number 6 probably fathered by a man surnamed Morgan Child 7 (my great grandmother) definitely the daughter of this Morgan chap – Ellen audacious enough to go and register the birth presenting herself as ‘Mrs Morgan’ Ellen appears in census in 1851, 61, 71 and 81 and always as a ‘widow’, and until the 1881, with more children than she had in the previous census. So, never appears in a census with a husband. Uses the surname ‘Morgan’ in 1871, but otherwise uses ‘Davies’ . The point is, once she started living in the neighbouring town, rather than her native village, she could get away with the dishonesty. Her older sister had four illegitimate children, but she stayed in the village so her circumstances were generally known, and with one exception, the census enumerator recorded her as ‘Unmarried’. Susan Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Liz via DERBYSGEN Sent: 04 June 2017 09:46 To: 'Derbyshire genealogy' Cc: Liz Subject: Re: [DBY] Baptisms where father isn't named The vicar went off to wet the baby's head and when it came to fill in the details he had forgotten the dad's name!!! It could also be that the husband was dead and the vicar thought the father was a different person in the village/town or the father was absent abroad. Liz -----Original Message----- From: DERBYSGEN [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joan M via DERBYSGEN Sent: 03 June 2017 15:15 To: 'Derbyshire genealogy' Cc: Joan M Subject: [DBY] Baptisms where father isn't named Hi, Apart from illegitimacy, is there any other reason that the father wouldn't be named? Thanks Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. http://www.avg.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message