Since my English grandmother who immigrated to Texas with her parents and siblings in 1885 married a German (b. Bexar Co., Texas, born to two German immigrants), I have had occasion to study ways and means of conducting both English and German genealogy. In neither of these cultures--English and German--is illegitimacy said to be a big deal. One German expert (author, publisher, lecturer) started out his lecture, In Germany there is no such thing as illegitimacy. The pair did not get married until the bride was pregnant usually because one or both might lose their employment. A couple of English lecturers (authors, lecturers) have said essentially the same thing. In fact, because so many English girls were put *into service* [became servants], frequently the first child was conceived before wedlock. In one instance I know of, the first child came considerably before the bride's first marriage. It was explained that mothers did not prepare their daughters for the fact that the master of the household had *bed privileges*. Some of you scholars will know the French term for this. This thought was provoked by some correspondence between myself and Bob Schulz concerning some supposed dalliances of Bettina von Arnim. (Note the antics of nobility in England these days.) I am a fan of Masterpiece Theater (back when PBS was better funded that it is now). If you have NOT seen a rather recent movie called Gosford Park, see if you can find it at your video store. You may understand the behavior of some of the upper classes and the lower classes. (Is this being replicated in the United States these days? Not the pay differences between CEOs and their employees!) Back to Gosford Park - do a google.com search for this movie. Here is a brief description: Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England E.W.Wallace