Illegitimacy in Scotland

[Silverhawk]

My great-grandmother, Magdalene Murray, was born in the hamlet of St Laurence House, East Lothian in 1886. However her birth certificate says she was illegitmate and thus has not named a father. I checked the certificates for her sister and three brothers (born from 1867 to 1882) and they were all illegitimate too   Is there any other documentation from this period I can check to find out who her father was?

By her marriage in 1914 (Rothbury, Northumberland), Magdalene had suddenly acquired the middle name of "Hunter" which she wasn't registered with. Could this be a clue?

[Nick Carver]

At one time in many places, the father of an illegitimate child was named on the baptism record. A given middle name is often a clue as would be the middle name of any children that an ilegitimate might have.

The problem with an adopted middle name is that there is no guarantee that it is adopted for the father. There may have been one man who fathered all these children and who supported their upbringing, but again there could be multiple fathers and one of them might have been by the name of Hunter. Might I suggest that you try the E Lothian county archives to see what documentation they might have for that parish? If there was ever any application for financial aid from the parish, it might have been minuted and such an informal document might name the father.

[Silverhawk]

The first son was registered with the middle name "Ogilvie", the next "Yule, the third "Liddle".  The two daughters contrastingly weren't registered with middle names but somewhere along the way picked up "Clark" and "Hunter".  So from that it could be likely that your suggestion of them all being half-siblings is true.

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll see what I can find out

[Nick Carver]

As you have so little to go on, perhaps it would be worth adopting a couple of hypotheses and then attempting to disprove them. At least that is better than a bunch of names that mean next to nothing. One hypothesis as you have already mentioned is that they all had different fathers. However, what if they all had the same father and the mother used some sort of naming convention? In that case, the middle name of the first child might be the name of the father, his mother's maiden name might be number 2 and so on. Do any of the middle names match with maiden names on the maternal side? If so, then this might help to prove this hypothesis. The other possibiliity is that there were only two (or three) fathers and the dates in which the children appear might help you to decide on the most likely answer for that one. If the children are evenly spaced, I'd have thought there was a good chance that there was only one father. However, if there is one or even two significant gaps, this might show that there were more than one father. Perhaps she was the mistress of somebody with money? Can you track down a census for the hamlet and see who else was living there who shared their name with the middle name of one of the children?

[Boongie Pam]

In Scotland, if you ever see a reference to an entry in the "Register of Corrected Entries" in the parents column, search it out.

I have found one occurrence where the missing father had a note to one of these entries.  When I looked that up it had an account of the paternity allegation his denial and eventual acceptance he was the father.

P

[Silverhawk]

If the children are evenly spaced, I'd have thought there was a good chance that there was only one father. However, if there is one or even two significant gaps, this might show that there were more than one father.

The children were born as follows: August 1867, December 1873, November 1876, June 1882, April 1886

However, what if they all had the same father and the mother used some sort of naming convention? In that case, the middle name of the first child might be the name of the father, his mother's maiden name might be number 2 and so on. Do any of the middle names match with maiden names on the maternal side? If so, then this might help to prove this hypothesis.

I've done a little digging and found that "Ogilvie" was the maiden name of the mother's maternal grandma.  None of the other middle names seem to match up with anyone on her side though.

Perhaps she was the mistress of somebody with money? Can you track down a census for the hamlet and see who else was living there who shared their name with the middle name of one of the children?

I've found a 30yr old unmarried Alexander Yule in the hamlet in 1881, three years younger than Fanny (the kids mother).  He's the blacksmith's son.