Had the case been a married woman had the child of someone other than the husband, the vicar is very likely to have made that known in one way or another I do not think the lack of fathers name is likely to be anything other than an illegitimate child unless there is a note or reason recorded Apart from anything else, the child could/would be dependant on the parish and they were keen to apportion blame if at all possible to enable them to follow up and get the father to pay for his child Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 04-Jun-17 10:14 AM, Margaret Siudek via DERBYSGEN wrote: > 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