In my family, one of my grandmothers and the son of my step 2G grandmother were illegitimate. In both cases, there were no details of the father at all, although my step 2G grandmother gave her son the 2 christian names, and surname as a middle name, of the son of a local squire. The child was baptised about 18 months later, two hundred miles away, and the squire's son was noted as the supposed father. On 06/04/2012 01:01, Peter R Booth wrote: > Jane, > > How important is it? You know they lived together and had children. If > you don't already have her maiden name, look for her first marriage. > > It's going to be very difficult and if they never married, it's a futile > search. > > There's hundreds of possible deaths for Joseph Smith in Staffordshire > between 1870-1880. You might be able to narrow it down to 1871-1875 and use > his age from 1871 to fine tune the results. > > But once again, you know he died. And you've already looked without > success for a marriage between 1871-1875. > > Maybe you should purchase William's birth certificate and see if a > father is named. I'm not sure what happens if the mother isn't married. > > Peter > > ****************************** > ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. > ------------------------------- > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message