General Chat

I have a baptism for 1796 that just says 'Benjamin Powell baptised on this day'. No mention of parents at all. I can make an educated guess that he is the child of a John and Mary baptising children before and after - the names of his own children make that likely. But there were other Powells in the same parish so I can't be sure. Gwynne

My grandfather was adopted in Scotland at the start of the 20th Century and there are no records pre-1930ish. Dead end before I even got started!

Pre 1837, an illegitimate child would almost certainly have been the subject of a Bastardy Order. Many of these survive in the Poor Law papers for any given district. I found most of mine via A2A, but that is pot luck - try the County Records Office for the area if you get nowhere with A2A. They always give the name of the father (or reputed father) and you can learn a lot from them! One of mine mentioned the mother's father, who had undertaken to 'care for the body and soul' of his daughter's illegitimate child, as the father (named) had done a runner - it gave HIS father's name too, but said that he was a pauper. OC

Sunny R Well at least I haven't paid out for a researcher this family seemed to change their surname faster than the weather. Pat

Hi Pat. Yes I have this problem. I paid for a search for my ancestor Edmund's parents and found he was base born and they couldn't tell me which Elizabeth was his mother,he may have had two siblings, but can't find any info about them either. So I am really up against a brick wall in 1787. Sunny R

How many of you have come to the end of the line on one or more of your ancestors. I mean were the ancestor is illegitimate and there is no possible way of finding out who the father was. This is pre census and 1837, all you have is e.g. John Smith base son of Ann Smith. Pat