Genealogy Chat

I posted a message about a father's name and occupation being just a dash on the wedding certificate (stuffed if I can find the message now though!!) and it was suggested that maybe the child was illigitimate in this case so the father wasn't known or they didn't want to put the name. I have checked this theory and they agree with this - which leads me to the question - where did the child get his surname then? Would he have taken the mother's maiden name or what? Also:- I have done searches for the addresses stated on the wedding certificates and the people living at the address are nothing to do with the people I thought should be living there!! - any clues?!?!

Hi Andrea, I had the same problem, no fathers name on marriage certificate, so i got his birth certificate and that was the same, i rang the register office and they told me that he was illegitimate, and that he was probably named after his mother, or in some cases if the mother was a widow and married again she may have named them after her second husband this did not help me in anyway, so i gave up on it as idont know what to do next, hope you have more luck Christine

I, too, am illegitimate but on my b cert. my fathers name is there simply because he was present at the registration therefore earnt the right to have his name added. In other cases, as has been said already, the child usually took the mothers maiden name.

Andrea According to my little family history book, it's been the law since 1875 that if the parents of a child were not married then the child could only be registered bearing its fathers surname if the father of that child was either present in person to register the birth or his written and sworn acknowledgement of paternity was produced. So, if the mother of the child registers its birth herself, without the father present, it would have to be registered in her surname, which may not necessarily have been her maiden name, had she been previously married! Does that make sense???? - Hope so! Dierdre X PS in 1929 a new Act of Parliament re Illegitimacy was brought out, making it possible that once the parents of children born outside marriage did get wed, then the children could have their names re-registered under the married name.

Thanks for the help about the surname.

would like to add that Deidre is spot on, when I registered my twins, we didn't realise that as we was unmarried the father had to be present, so my boys got a dash. but when we recently married we legitimized their births( registars words)and their father was added to cert. Now if anybody in future searches for boys details they'll come across the orginal entries which have been cross refered with the new Shelli

My grt grandfather was illegitimate born in 1863. I spent months trying to find a marriage for his mother to someone named Hill to explain his different surname on records, only to be told by an elderly relative that he just chose the name!! He didnt even do this officialy yet all his documents are in the name Hill apparently it was perfectly legal to use a known as name if its the one you used all the time