Hi Sue, Fascinating question. What sort of responses have you had? In traditional legal terms, the poor kids are illegitimate (born out of wedlock) but I wonder if that is true today in case of a "confirmed" union? Also, can one "legitimize" them by father accepting parentage without a marriage? I think, being most certainly the descendant of several bastards, it's a silly distinction that should be tossed out along with lots of other old concepts. Best Dixie > Just for fun, I'm sending this question to see what kind of feedback there is > - > > The couple had a good marriage - but it was a confirmed common law union. > They lived together for 42 years. Are their children illegitimate? > > > > I don't want to clog up the list with responses, so please respond directly to > me off list. > > Cheerio > Sue Visser > genealgal2 at execulink dot com > > > ==== SCT-ISLAY Mailing List ==== > Click on this link for some wonderful stories, and general information about > Islay: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~steve/islay/misc.htm >

Oh,....this is just too good Think about the legal ramifications of tossing out that silly distinction. Suppose the husband of Peggy McPeevish did a notorious local bim and 25 years later some little bastard shows up wanting his share of the estate, back support and reparations, etc. etc. There goes poor Mrs. McPeevish's nest egg. There are some other aspects of our ancestors to ponder. It is well known that the staff of various lunatic asylums in 19th century Scotland said the worst inmates came from the Highlands and the Western Isles because of centuries of cousin marrying cousin. Knowing the "crazy gene" could be lurking in any of us with roots in Islay might be cause for mild concern by a prospective spouse. Maybe we should just put it all to music. The chorus would be: "Don't let the bastards, get you down . Dixie Even though Uncle Jack, did a little quickie It's not sacrilegious, to be so insidious But it can get kinda tricky." Perhaps others out there can come up with some verses and a tune.:-) Dougald MacArthur -----Original Message----- From: Dixie Cutler [mailto:cutlerd@shaw.ca] Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:19 PM To: SCT-ISLAY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SCT-ISLAY] off topic - please respond directly to me off list Hi Sue, Fascinating question. What sort of responses have you had? In traditional legal terms, the poor kids are illegitimate (born out of wedlock) but I wonder if that is true today in case of a "confirmed" union? Also, can one "legitimize" them by father accepting parentage without a marriage? I think, being most certainly the descendant of several bastards, it's a silly distinction that should be tossed out along with lots of other old concepts. Best Dixie

For those wondering about my lack of response/follow-up, firstly my desktop decided to take a spa vacation at my PC shop - should be back refreshed and ready to work next week - and with 1.7 gig memory (and if THAT doesn't suffice....grrr). Secondly I wanted to give it a couple of weeks to get all the feedback before assessing it overall. So far quite interesting.... Sue Visser ---------------------------- Powered by Execulink Webmail http://www.execulink.com/