Genealogy Chat

I don't know who she worked for. How would you find that one out? xx

Was she employed by the same man throughout? Not many prim and proper gentlemen would continue to employee a housekeeper who kept having illegitimate babies - not just for the disgrace, but for the inconvenience of having her unable to keep house in the later stages of pregnancy and during her 'lying in' period. Have you checked to see if he was married? Maybe he couldn't marry her because his wife was kicking about and he couldn't divorce her.

I have a male relative who is listed on a census with a housekeeper and a couple of (her?) kids, while his wife is living elsewhere with some kids and a 'consort'! After the wife and consort and her (their?) kids left for New Zealand he married the housekeeper. There is no sign of a divorce so I guess it was bigamy! Christine in NZ

Thanks for the tip, Kylie, but no they didn't have middle names.

My 6th ggmother Ruth Wedrald had 6 children between 1790 and 1809, I am descended from the third. The 4th one was baptised Thomas Cockbone Weatherald. In 1814 she married Thomas Cockbone and they had another child Obed Cockbone in 1815. Ruth was 21 when she had her 1st child and TC was 17 years older than her. I have no idea why they waited so long to marry, Nor indeed if TC was my ancestor.

Dea - which youth was that? Peter

Do the children have middle names? The son in particular may have his father's name as his middle name - either christian name or surname.

Thanks Julie.

Chloe After looking at your thread, it got me thinking again about my gt grandmother and her son (my nans half brother), on his cert he's down as having no father. After reading your thread i went away and done some more digging, her son was born in London, and she was from Liverpool and at some point before my nan was born came back to liverpool to live Ive now found a poss father, and if hes not the father at least i now know who he was named after. Now just need to try and find out when she went to London. Then i know if she was pregnant b4 she went to stay with the poss father. So Chloe don't give up in your search the answers are out there somewhere Julie

LOL Lou.

Chloe In what way? Most of my father's family were barking mad anyway so interbreeding came as no shock! Lou

Scandalous, Lou! Does it explain anything?! ;-)

My ggrandfather's brother and sister married each other! At least until I can prove otherwise that's the only likely theory. None of their children were registered or baptised either. Strange that! Lou

Looks like my maternal great grandfather only got married when the eldest child was 12. Wonder why they bothered?

LOL Chris. I found someone's ancestor/relative living with his mistress on the 1871. Says he's the head, and married, and the woman who's living with him, relationship to head says 'mistress' and the two children with the woman's surname are his daughters. He did the decent thing and married her later that year, only to marry someone else in 1876. Victorian times... prim and proper my arse!! LOL

I have an Ag Lab (no kids) with a Housekeeper.....Yeah right! And a number of children that appeared at regular intervals with her surname. What an understanding employer!!! ;-) Chris

Made me cringe too!!!! LOL.

Kim, that has made me cringe! lol

i have one ancestor who had 7 illegitimate offspring, the only man in the house was her own father.... So I leave the rest up to peoples imagination! Kim

She didn't register any of them! I've looked, their not there. On the baptism record, that's all I've seen, and surely you can say who the father is on a baptism record? Chloe