Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. My third great grandfather was illegitimate. We know this because the man listed as his father on his baptism record can't have been married to his mother, long story short he was a soldier and not from around there, and married another woman in India two years after, listed as a bachelor.
However, having seen his baptism record, I was surprised to note that there was no reference to his illegitimacy on it, I thought baptisms back in that day and age (1850s), were usually pretty blunt about the marital state of the parents.
I did note, though, there's a sizable mark, it looks like a cross, it looks like put below the baptism record for my ancestor.
I saw one blog post that said a cross was sometimes used to gently identify an illegitimate child rather than call them a b*stard, etc. But it looks like it was mostly put in front of the record, at least in this one parish in Tipperary where the author seemed to be focused (mine was in Cavan though).
http://fanningfamilyhistory.com/index.php/2017/02/05/priests-comments-on-baptism-and-marriage-records-co-tipperary-ireland/Then again, I've also heard some Catholic priests didn't even bother to record a child's illegitimacy, it just depended on the time and place.
Here's a link to the image. I apologize for it being slightly blurry... I didn't take it, a third party I knew a while ago who had a Find My Past account did. At the time I didn't know about the potential significance of the cross mark on the record.
https://i.imgur.com/cYW7Lut.jpgI wasn't sure if anyone else has seen similar, and knows what it means, if it was a symbol for illegitimacy across Ireland. Also, his name, Samuel, is underlined twice. I don't know if that's significant, if all the names on the register are maybe underlined. But if anyone has an FindMyPast account and can view that page, it would be really nice. His name was Samuel Blyth (Blythe on this record) baptized in November of 1854 in the Church of St. Mary's Belturbet, County Cavan.
Thanks so much for reading all of this, I appreciate the input.