General Chat

my gran was, her father wasnt named on her birthcertificate, only her mam
and she was adopted at early age and brought to newport, with name change

i do wonder if maybe her adoptive father was her father cos apparently they were very close, adn her adoptive mother left for america alone when granny was 5 year old
her birth mother was a domestic servant but not know who for, just in cardiff

I think a lot of illegitimates were born illegitimate because the parents couldnt marry at that specific time ,ie, they couldnt afford it, or the father had to wait for his first wife to die, or one was still underage.

It happened a lot, but it is charming that the husband wanted his first wife to pop it before he could marry his lover. Charming lol.

Another thing, when my ancestor Thomas Roberts wed the mother of his illegitimate baby shortly after the birth, his eldest daughter Ann aged 13 went to live with her dads sister in Bermondsey.

She probably didnt approve of her dad's lliasion wouldt you say??

Ben

Well I suppose that it was better that he waited for his wife to die rather than hastening her end!

Hi everyone
Just been reading through this thread

My ggrandfather on my dads side appears to have never married his 'wife'. I have been unable to find a record of a marriage and on my grandads birth cert his mum has has the same surname as his dad.
Also my dad,s mum had an illegitamate son about 8 years before my dad was born, he was bought up by my dads father and took the family name.

My family come from Sussex and Kent!!!!!

Yvonne

When I first started FH I was `stuck` trying to find a marriage for my gggrandparents so decided to go `sideways` only to discover that my gggrandfather had married my gggrandmothers sister instead. As you could not marry your deceased wifes sister in those days they lived together as man and wife for over 30 years and I often wonder if the children knew.

Love and Peace
Marianne. x

Also if the man's wife was ill for a long time or was at risk of dying from ie consumption or bronchitis, then quite often the husband would go and find a mistress to be with before his wife died. Often they did get them pregnant before their wife died, and when she did die, then the husband was free to marry his mistress, as said it was for convenience as well.

Men only really admitted paternity of a baseborn child if they actually was the dad. Admitting something like that when they were not the father was quite a risk as there was always the chance the child would find out later on, or the real dad might go looking, or the man would get a bad name if he went round telling people he fathered a base child when all the time he didnt. Most men denied paternity when they really were the father to save their own bacon.

Ben