General Chat

One of my ancestors is illegitimate so has his mothers maiden name, 10 years later she marries and he is on censuses as the husbands surname, my question is, is that for respectability and how would i go about finding out which name HE used for marriage etc.

Hi Elaine.

Have you looked for the Father on the 1851 census, that may tell you which prison he is in you can then go to that local library and look it up in the local paper, what he did and how long he got. Hope that makes sense and helps.
Sue.

My great grandfather Elijah was illegitemate his birth cert has "B" word on it. However the family told me there was no way round it drat but I found it 99.9% sure ~ they told me his mother Mary married but could only remember his first name drat no problem I found his marriagfe cert on it a father John but with his mothers surname drat then I found a marriage for her on the records herself another lady and two Johns drat then I found a 1911 census it gave John and Mary I thought wow getting some where then double wow next door was Elijah now I was really cooking but was it his dad or his step dad 1871 census year afore Elijah was born Mary was living and working at a pub landlord name John hey presto my John must be real father x

Me and OH have some illegitimate ones in our tree, and we found that a lot of them had their true father's name as a middle name. One girl was a servant to a flour miller, and her illegitimate daughter had the millers name as a second name.

So that is something to look out for.

Mo

my gran was illegitimate she was born in cardiff
where her mam lived and worked at time,
however her mam must of been a lady that didnt worry much who knew, cos she just gave her daughter her surname,
tho maybe she didnt know who the daddy was, ooh eck,
maybe he was married, cos she werent, crickey the shock
maybe she knew and let him be the one who adopted her and brouht her to newport
my grans adoptive dad, (tho she always said her dad) dont think she knew she was adopted tho she could keep a secret, her and her adoptive dad were close, and she loved him,
her adoptive mam sailed off to america when gran was 5 years old