Frances Bell was born 23 May 1890 at Tundergarth. She was the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Bell. Elizabeth a few years later married Gideon Palmer and moved to Ayr, then England. Frances remained with her mother and was brought up as Gideon's daughter.
Is there any way of finding out who Frances' father was? it does not say on the birth cert.
We seem to be drifting away from the question about finding the father of Frances Bell, who was born in
Scotland. Now, there is a lot of really interesting and useful information in this thread about records of fathers of illegitimate children in
England (and it has suggested some avenues of enquiry I might try in my own research) but things are a wee bit different north of the Border
.
The answer to the question is, 'Sometimes, but you need to be lucky'.
The first thing to know is that the father's name would only be on the birth certificate of an illegitimate child if the father accompanied the mother when she went to register the child, and signed the register at the same time. Even if the entire parish knew who had fathered Elizabeth's child, if he didn't register the birth with her, his name doesn't go on the certificate.
There are four things I would try.
1. When Frances married Gideon Palmer, did she name a reputed father on her marriage certificate?
2. Is there any record in the Tundergarth Kirk Session records that might reveal the name of Frances' father? By 1890, this practice was disappearing, but it hadn't completely disappeared in rural parishes. However I see from the online catalogue of the National Records of Scotland that there is no listing of any records of Tundergarth Kirk Session later than 1890, so no joy there. Unless a later volume turns up in a local or a university archive, but that's a long shot.
3. Was there a court action for paternity? I have already mentioned the Scottish Indexes web site
https://www.scottishindexes.com/.
4. Was there an application to the Tundergarth Parochial Board for help with the expense of bringing Frances up? Possibly not, because it looks as if Frances was brought up by her grandparents who seem to have been able to support her, but you never know. Start with Dumfries and Galloway Archives if you want to pursue that line.
If all of those fail, then you will never know the answer unless by some sort of fluke.