Genealogy Chat

Being the parish priest maybe he did father half the village, you never know. (lol)

Joke:

Man in the confessional box. "Father I have sinned"

Priest: "How have you sinned my son?"

Man: "I have fornicated with a girl in the village"

Priest: "Was it Molly Malone?"

Man: "No father"

Priest: "Was it Mary McGuire?"

Man: " No father"

Priest: "Was it Lizzie Connolly?"

Man: "No father"

Priest: "It is obvious that you do not wish to embarrass the young lady by revealing her name. I absolve you of your sin. Say 3 Hail Marys, 2 Our fathers and sin no more"

Man: "Thank you father and by the way thank you for the tips"

My likely solution is that when Elizabeth gave her surname as North then Alfred, if they were married, had to be Alfred North (not Dixon) and to cover the fact they were not married give Childs as a maiden name. I feel sad that my grandmother finding, as she thought that her father was not her biological father caused her so much pain.

I've been away for a couple of weeks, the trauma of a dying cat has overtakne me. So back to the scene, and I have to say I am not happy with the conclusions drawn here, but haven't got anything better yet. As IGP says, don't make the evidence fit. Start from basics.

Oh look the expert is back........

"not happy with the conclusions drawn here", but can't offer anything themselves........i say no more

We all know that it is virtually impossible to positively identify the biological father of an illegitimate child. The only person who can possibly know that for certain is the child's mother and if she had sexual encounters with more than one man around the time of conception even she may not be 100% sure.

We can however look at the overall picture and make an educated guess from what we see. In this instance I would say that several facts point towards Alfred Dixon as being the child's natural father.

1) The father named on the birth certificate has the forename Alfred.

2) The mother married an Alfred very shortly after the child's birth.

3) Alfred Dixon's occupation as a soldier at the time of marriage may well have precluded marriage at a time to suit the parents or his being present at the child's birth registration. As a serving soldier he may have been on active duty elsewhere. He would also require permission from his commanding officer to get married.

4) Although there are some, I am sure that there are not many men who would marry someone with a 6 month old baby were they not, or believed themselves to be, the child's father.

It is, I agree, sometimes easy to try to make the facts we discover fit a conclusion. In this particular instance I feel that there is reasonable evidence to conclude that Alfred Dixon was the most probable father of the child whose birth was registered as Agnes Elizabeth North.

Did you have some point to make Julie? If so, I have missed it.

I am thinking I agree with Rosemary's conclusion. Alfred was named as North on the birth cert, even though she married him later as Alfred Dixon. Seems quite a likely story, but there will never be proof.