Genealogy --- what do you do if you hit an unmarried mother entry?

Question

19th century England, paternal lineage:
unmarried mother living with her parents, baby given mother's maiden name. What is the likelihood of the father having been named. Where do you go from this point.
Thanx

How do you deal with knowing the name you now have that you thought was your ancestral name is not the right name :-/

Thanx: some good advice and am less shell-shocked for some realism here: thanx :)

Answer 1

Try here for a start, if after 1 July 1837 they you can get a birth certificate, does the child have a middle name, some times the father's name was inserted as a middle name,

Then the local record office may still have the " Bastardy " bonds in which a the father is made to support the child, and a look at the poor law keepers records would not go amiss.

Good luck and good hunting

Answer 2

A lot of good answers here! I'm going to add something that will make everyone disgusted, but there were cases of incest in those days. Some times if there wasn't a male to carry on the surname a father would take his daughter. I know this because it happened in my ex husbands family history.
Then there might be a husband who would take the wife's maiden name, if there were no males to carry on the name, or even to alienate himself from his family.
We all hit brick walls and may never find the answer. There is the possibility of finding an answer you wish you hadn't! Never the less, it does not change who we are. It only says how we got here.

Answer 3

Ben the Bus gave you the best advice as to how to find the father's name.

As to
> How do you deal with knowing the name you now have that you thought was your ancestral name is not the right name

You can renounce the world, give up your worldly possessions and become a nun. They usually take new names. "Mary Magdalene" would work. If you do, can I have your car?

Seriously, you've got 16 great great grandparents. You name doesn't reflect 15 of them, unless you have a lot of middle names. People named Zimmerman in German become Carpenter in the US; Souplis becomes Souplee, to make the Virginians pronounce a Huguenot word properly. I have a couple of dozen children born to unmarried mothers who took the mom's name instead of the tom catting father's.

Take a deep breath, pour yourself two or three fingers of good bourbon in a mason jar, and get on with your life. If you are kind, gentle, warm, witty, well-read, intelligent, gracious and devilishly handsome as a "Smith", you will still be so even if "Smith" was your GGGrandmother's name, not your GGGF.

Answer 4

How a person came into this world should NOT be that important if they had a loving person for a mother. people have made mistakes for thousands of years. let it go. Love whom ever your mother or Grand mother was and don't let it ruin a good relationship. in the scheme of things does it really matter? As the bible says...Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.

Answer 5

Hi,

I recently found out my birth mother was Audrey Phillips... she and most of her family are dead... but i did find some cool cousins.

So anyway (being illegitimate) I was registered at birth as a Phillips. However, I later found out that my (and my cousins) Great Grandfather Archibald William Clelford Phillip was illegitimate... like me.

Great Grandfather's Mum was a Phillips... but his father was William Clelford. I worked this out from his middle names, after first assuming they just couldn't spell Clifford. I found him living nearby via a Census search.

I had to break it to my relatives that they were actually a bunch of Clelfords.

They took it well. If I don't find out my Dad's name, I may decide to start using my birth name and choose to call myself TJ Clelford-Phillips.

Male Y-DNA is tied to surnames so If your unmarried Mum is from a small village I would suggest you input Y-DNA from a male in your family and try matching the other surnames in the village... ok, a longshot, but if there is a match it should stand out.

regards,

RouX

Answer 6

You may or may not locate identifying the father.
As for the 'ancestral' name.. you are equally part of all your ancestors, such as they are. Far more people have blank lines than we care to admit (missing daddies). My friendly advice is to approach research as a scientist... a fact is a fact, not to be judged as good or bad. It just is.
Your surname is not your ancestry, it is just a small piece and a label to utilize. You are a worthy person in your own right, no matter how you arrived at the name you now carry.

Answer 7

Married/unmarred, makes no difference in genealogy. The mother is still the mother; find out her parents and keep going.

Answer 8

There is nothing you can do about the name of the father, if it isn't put on the birth certificate then you wont find out.

Answer 9

WOW! Great question! I have no info on this one but i agree with BEN. GOOD LUCK!!