BIRTH CERTIFICATES - FATHER'S NAME

Jellylegs

Jellylegs

Well-Known Member
Wasn't sure exactly where to post this, so if it would be better somewhere else, perhaps a Mod could move it?

I'm sure I read somewhere (can't think where though) that when a child's birth was registered, the mother's husband had to be listed as the father, even if he was not the father of the child. (Hope that makes sense)

Did I dream it, or does anyone know if this is true? I am talking about a birth in the 19th century.
 
I don't think it was compulsory, Jellylegs, but I'm sure many a birth certificate doesn't tell the complete truth about paternity.

If a married woman went along to register her child's birth, and said that her husband was the father, it would have just been assumed she was telling the truth, unless the Registrar had reason to be suspicious (for example if the husband was known to have been transported or in prison for more than nine months before the birth).

If she did want to name another man as the father, I think this would have been possible, but the father may have had to be present too and to acknowledge that the child was his in order for his name to be put on the birth certificate. (I have not yet found any official source to back this up, but am guessing by analogy with the situation for illegitimate births.)

If no father's details were given, or if the claimed father would not accompany the mother to the register office, then I would think you might get a certificate with just the mother's name on it, even though she was married. Just guessing though!
 
In the Registration Act of 1875, the instruction read "The name, surname and occupation of the putative father of an illegitimate child must not be entered except at the joint request of the father and mother; in which case both the father and mother must sign the entry as informants".
 
Thanks Huncamunca.

I have a birth certificate where the child was born 5 days after the parents listed on it were married. However, he had the middle name of Hall. He appears in the 1881 census as the adopted son of Martha and James HALL. When he married, he listed his father as the chap on his birth certificate James KENYON. He always told his children that they would never find out who his real father was, but we suspect it was James HALL.
 
Jellylegs said:
Thanks Huncamunca.

I have a birth certificate where the child was born 5 days after the parents listed on it were married. However, he had the middle name of Hall. He appears in the 1881 census as the adopted son of Martha and James HALL. When he married, he listed his father as the chap on his birth certificate James KENYON. He always told his children that they would never find out who his real father was, but we suspect it was James HALL.
Click to expand...
Any clues in his baptism? Some Parish Clerks were rather good at making margin notes.
 
Not found a baptism yet - he was born in Blackpool, but by the 1881 census he was with his adopted family in Streatham.
 
Yes under the law of England and Wales the father of a child born in wedlock is automatically assumed to be the husband of the father unless it can be shown that he did not have "access" to the mother at the relevant time.
This in effect means he was overseas, in a different part of the country, in jail etc. so that he could not have been present when the child was conceived.
Cheers
Guy
 
Thanks Guy - just wish I could remember where I actually saw it written - or maybe it was on a forum somewhere in a reply to a query.
 
Sorry to have come into this thread very late. If you want clues to the father's identity where he is not named on the birth certificate look to see if the child was given a middle name.

I have 2 instances where I have almost "solved" the identity of the father from the middle name: the first concerns a middle name Richardson of a child born illegetimately. I have the address of the birth and a check of the relevant electoral registers finds a Richardson registered as entitled to vote. The second involves a middle name Clarke of a child born 10 months after the mother's husband died (she obviously didn't grieve very long!!). Mr Clarke was the next door neighbour and I am currently investigating him.

All the best,
Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK
 
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