"love child" - was this an official census relationship

[stanmapstone]

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2008 45% of babies were born to unmarried parents. It was 4-5% until 1960.

Stan

[Cas (stallc)]

I think marriage should be a choice people make hopefully right decisions coz they have a connection other than in the moment..  Children IF you can provide for them is another matter.  I do not condone bringing children into the world without both hopefully good role models of mother/father.  But that is not the society we live today.  I have always been a taxpayer, and did not have any 'love kids'  But my dau did. She died and I am raising them.  What I dislike is financially milking the taxpayer system with dependents if you cannot afford them.  Bit of a rant but over it now..it is how it is.

The census of today in decades will be nothing like what we view or regard as 'normal' family

Cas

[LizzieL]

If you put just Love Child as a Keyword in the 1911 census there are many entries.

Stan

Just done that (using FindMyPast and putting it in the relationship field) and have got 40 entries. The curious thing is they all seem to be from London and the South of England - predominantly south west, with a couple in South Wales. Perhaps it was a description not commonly used in other areas

[LizzieL]

And in 1901 only 6. One in West Bromwich but all others in London / SW England / S Wales. And the really odd thing is one is in a village where ancestors from my other parent come from and the two surnames (parents' and love child's) are already in my tree and one is quite rare. So a strong possibility of a relationship.