Genealogy Chat

Yes, you guessed it!!! I have just got my first marriage certificate with a big blank where the bride's father's name should be. Can someone please tell me how I go about finding whether her mother applied for any financial assistance from the father. The bride was born in Farnham in Surrey in 1819 and I know that her mother's name was Sarah Green which unfortunately is a bit common-place. By the time she was married at the age of 19 she was living in Hampshire.

Sometimes if your very luck the fathers name will be on the baptism records, was for one of mine. The records office for Surry should have the Bastardry Bond if there is one. Your luck to have only had one without a father! I seem to come from a long line of single mums!! The father I did find was for a great aunt, oh well I guess it cuts down on the amount of families in my tree!! Fiona.

Thanks, Fiona. Looks like I will have to wait for a while until I have time to go down to Surrey. Do you know if Bastardy Bonds go according to parish or are they usually just in one lot for the county?

Hi Angela, Before you go all the way to the records office you should call and ask if the have Bonds for that period. If the have them indexed they may look it up for you, would help to know which parish the child was born in if it is a common name. Fiona.

Hello again, Fiona. Yes, it is a good idea to call the Records Office to see if they have the bonds. I have the parish and date of baptism and the mother's name. It would save me a journey to Woking which is not too handy for me. Sorry for the delay in replying. Thanks for your help.

Hi My Aunt went up to Scotland to visit our Great Aunt (my grandmas sister) and asked her to have a look at her mums (my aunts mum and my grandma) birth certificate and in big letters is the word bastard , so i would of loved there to of been a blank space imagine having to send that off for a passport or anything else you would need it for. That was only 1918 as well. Donna

Seems a bit harsh. I certainly wouldn't want that on my birth certificate. It would be most embarrassing.

Hi angela i had to find out who the father of my g grandmother was i got the birth certificate. My g great grandmother didn't know her fathers name or anything but he was on the birth certificate....maybe you should try that. Stephanie.

Hi Angela My g,grandfather's parents never married. I have the name of his father and mother on his birth cert. I even have the address of the Dad but... there are a lot of them with that name from the same address (farmers) I have decided he is a randy old farmer age 41, only saying that cause his mum was an 18yr farm servant lol. I felt sorry for them both, but my ggGranny married 4 yr later had 7 more kid's, and my ggGrandad went on to have 11. As for the 'randy old farmer' he married a 23 yr ld who died that year then married again! Hope I didn't bore you with that lot lol. Marion

Have you tried www.A2A.org? They have loads of stuff and sometimes Bastardy Orders are on there and will give you the fathers name. Sam x

Dorothy 'Father unknown' doesnt actually mean that. It is just a peculiarly nasty left over from years gone by, when the Church and the Establishment and all 'respectable' people frowned on the sin of bastardy.(An imprisonable offence for many centuries). English Law has always stated that, in the case of an unmarried woman having a child, the father CANNOT be named on any official document UNLESS he attends the Registrar with the mother (or makes a sworn declaration). Same for Parish Registers, but I have seen plenty of entries which have the name of the father alongside (not in Father column).The Church came at it from a slightly different angle - it was in everyone's interest to know who the father of the child was, in case that child became a financial burden on the Parish. And, having often entered the name of the father in the margin, they redressed the moral balance by writing 'Bastard', so that everyone would know of the woman's sin. These laws of course were made by men, for the benefit of men, who might otherwise be falsely named as the father, leading to loss of property and inheritance! Incidentally, amongst all the spiteful declarations of 'bastard' and 'baseborn'( a term reserved for the illegitimate offspring of the Gentry it seems to me), I saw a wonderful Parish Register for the Isle of Man. In here the Vicar had written, under name of Father 'Known unto God', which I thought was a lovely, humane way of putting it. My brother said good job he didn't write 'God Knows'. Olde Crone