Genealogy Chat

Hi,
My dad was born illegitimately in Liverpool in 1927. In 1928 his mother took his father to court and obtained a bastardy order for 7/6d per week. All that was available in the records apart from the names of the mother and father was the fact that his father was represented by Beswick Hanley which, after research on Google has led me to believe he was a solicitor from Hanley, Staffordshire. There is still a law firm in Hanley called Beswicks. The staff at Liverpool records said no other information would be available about the defendant. There is a family of the right name in Hanley in 1901 & 1911 census. Am I chasing rainbows following this family without any concrete evidence. Does anybody have suggestions on how I might be able to verify my information?
Also, the order was to be paid until age 14 which would take us to 1941. There are some miles between Liverpool and Hanley how would this have been paid? Very few people had bank accounts then.
Many thanks

Have you been in touch with the solicitors to see if they had a related office in Liverpool in the 1920's?

Was his Mother born in Liverpool?

I am just wondering how they met.

Money was often handed over (to the Mother or child) in person when all lived locally.
I am just doing some searches to see how it was paid over a distance.

Gran came from Great Crosby. Family rumour has him being a student at the university but the university have no record of him. I don't know how they met either. She was a domestic servant we think. People did move around a bit more after WW1 so he could have been in Liverpool on business or working. Am waiting on some military records to see if he was possibly in the area in 1926. Have spoken to solicitors but no related offices that they knew of. If I have the correct family they were coal miners in 1911. Have contacted on here some people who are almost certainly related to the family but they have not responded. :-(

Possibly the money would have been paid by Postal Order, which the mother could cash at any Post Office.

Some interesting reading here:

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1920/may/07/bastardy-bill

Does not help about long-distance payment.

If he was living in Stoke then she must have known the address etc to track him down. Does family rumour say why they did not marry?

Thanks Patchem, very interesting. That is very true about the address might seem dense but it hadn't even occurred to me!! No, rumour doesn't say why they didn't marry. Can only speculate. Unfortunately most info gone to the grave. If you manage to get more information on long distance payment would be glad to hear it.
Were postal orders available in 1920's Potty?

According to Wikipedia, they were first issued in 1881 - several other sites give the same year.

Yes I have just looked at that myself. Many thanks

people did send cash by mail in earlier days!


I can remember sending cash in the late 1950s and early 1960s ................ if you had to send coins, you attached them to a piece of paper with sellotape.

We were much more trusting then!

That is true