« Reply #9 on: Sunday 22 June 14 18:30 BST (UK) »
I've done some research for a friend of mine on one of her Essex lines. One of her ancestors had 10 illegitimate children, the last of which was listed with a father's name as they were resident in the workhouse at the time. All the other nine, including those she has birth certificates for, do not have a father listed. The reputed father on the last was actually her Uncle.
But then she'd been listed on a number of preceding census as being the "wife" of her Uncle.
Mind you whether she was her father's daughter remains to be seen since she was born two month's after her parent's marriage.
So it's possible it wasn't an incestuous relationship and perhaps the rest of the village knew that.
(KENT) Lingwell, Rayment (BUCKS) Read, Hutchins (SRY) Costin, Westbrook (DOR) Gibbs, Goreing (DUR) Green (ESX) Rudland, Malden, Rouse, Boosey (FIFE) Foulis, Russell (NFK) Johnson, Farthing, Purdy, Barsham (GLOS) Collett, Morris, Freebury, May, Kirkman (HERTS) Winchester, Linford (NORTHANTS) Bird, Brimley, Chater, Wilford, Read, Chapman, Jeys, Marston, Lumley (WILTS) Arden, Whatley, Batson, Gleed, Greenhill (SOM) Coombs, Watkins (RUT) Stafford (BERKS) Sansom, Angel, Young, Stratton, Weeks, Day