Hi Janice I checked with the GRO in Edinburgh re the practice of recording illegitimacy on birth records and the (strange to me) incidence of adding the occupation of the mother's father, where the father's name is not given. This is what they said in reply: "There was never a legal requirement introduced to put the occupation of the grandparents - this could have been personal choice for this particular registrar, but certainly not widespread practice. The last records I can find illegitimate written on was in 1918 - perhaps after the first world war they changed the legislation to reflect that a good many children were born illegitimate afterwards, as a whole generation of men had been wiped out in the war. I tried to find some formal legislation for this but could not find it - but checked births from 1905 onwards and it is not until 1919 that the word illegitimate disappears." So why does Eva's certificate not include the word "illegitimate"? Adoption didn't become subject to legislation in Scotland until 1931. Before that adoption and fostering had been done on an informal basis. So Eva's adoption would have been an informal arrangement. Rhoda