I have just discovered I had an ancestor in England whose father was married, and the father was in love with another woman by whom he had twelve children before his wife died. He then married the mother of the 12 children. His son, my ancestor, used his mother's surname until his parents married, then he started using his father's surname. Does anybody know if these illegitimate children became legitimate when the parents married? I think it doesn't matter at this point but am just curious. I have had him listed under his father's name from the beginning but have put in a note that he used his mother's surname until the marriage. Makes me think of Leah and Rachel in the Bible except that the women were not sisters. Shirley