The Parish Shame

[trish251]

Found recently the marriage of a man and his 3rd wife. He was a widower with grown children when they met and had about a dozen or so children together before the children from 3rd marriage were baptised and parents married. Not sure if minister madde marriage a condition of baptism or baptism a condition of marriage but I was told that the father brought the first group to church in the cart and told the minister to start with them while he went back home for the rest.

Cheaper by the dozen presumably      A lovely cart story

Trish

[LizzieW]

I think illegitimacy only became a scandal after WWII, almost as a reaction to the many pregnant unmarried mothers during the war.  Then after 1970, it became less of a problem.

Lizzie

[LoneyBones]

There's a very apt Australian poem called "McGuinnis McGee" (can't remember who wrote it, I'll have to go look it up later) about a traveling priest who arrived at an outback town to catch up on all the marriages and christenings. His round of towns took quite some time and he hadn't been to this particular town in about 6 years. One youngster, family name McGee, heard about this christening thing and guessed it might be a bit branding. He'd seen cattle branded and wasn't going to have a bit of it. He took to his heels and finally hid up a log. The priest tried his best to get the youngster out without any luck, so finally chucked a bottle of McGuinnis whiskey up the log and cried out something like..." take your luck with 'McGuinnis' McGee." (try tracing this on the IGI)
This little story just illustrates that marriages and christenings sometimes took place when it was convenient more than when it was propper.
Cheers,
Leonie.

[maggiefishblue]

I think illegitimacy only became a scandal after WWII,

I think you are right here Lizzie - when I was growing up in the 1950s it really was taboo.  However, like many other researchers, I have found it quite prevelant in earlier families that either the bride was pregnant or had at least one child on marriage.

I did read somewhere that couples tried to conceive before they married their partners to make sure that they could have children and then would have someone to look after them in old age.

Maggie  

[trish251]

I think illegitimacy only became a scandal after WWII, almost as a reaction to the many pregnant unmarried mothers during the war.  Then after 1970, it became less of a problem.

Lizzie

I think well before that Lizzie - illegitimate children couldn't inherit & I know in Australia they couldn't work in the public service well before WWII (Just look at the comments made in the OPRs about "bastards")  - children born shortly after marriage was certainly frowned upon after WWII until the 1970s.

The poem Leonie is referring to is "The Bush Christening" by Andrew Barton (Banjo) Patterson. A google should find all the words - he also wrote Waltzing Matilda, the Man from Snowy River, Clancy of the Overflow etc

Trish

[LoneyBones]

Pipped at the post! If I hadn't stopped to read it .............. and if you DO want to check the genealogy, the spelling is 'Magee' and his father was Michael.
Leonie.

[Josephine]

For some of the Irish folks in my tree who supposedly got married in the mid-1800s in Canada, the only ones for whom I can't find marriages or divorces are the Catholic + Protestant couples.

It seems God (or their parents) frowned on intermarriage but didn't mind them shacking up, LOL.

Regards,
Josephine

[maggiefishblue]

illegitimate children couldn't inherit

I was thinking about my less well-off ancestors with nothing to leave as an inheritance but who would need someone to support them in old age to save them from the workhouse - although the ploy didn't always work as several of their children were too poor to support elderly parents and they had to go into the workhouse anyway ....

Maggie

[jinks]

Looking through My ancestors I too have found that many
mariages do not take place 9 months before the first born.

In a village near where I live it was quite common to marry
AFTER the first child was born.

I think it only became a scandal if they did not marry OR
appear to marry.

Bastardly bonds were issued against a person who did not
take the responsibility of their base born child.

Jinks