Is it possible to find the father of an illegitimate child?

[castlebob]

Hello All,
I'm involved with a DNA Surname group, & if you have a male relative from the same source as the unknown  father, then there is a chance.
Get this male relative to do a 37-marker test, (12-markers are virtually useless), & enter the DNA results with Y-search. Often you'll find there may be several matches with a particular name, eg you may find 10 results, of which, 8 are Armstrongs, 1 Jones, 1 Williams.
If you know you're whole family were from an area where Armstrongs were predominant, you may be able to use that knowledge as a starting point.
You could then look at Census returns: you may find a lad of that name living in your girl's village, & of similar age to your relation. If the other "candidates" weren't living close enough to be likely options, then you may be able to take a sensible guess at your lineage. Take a look at the likely father & see if the illeg child was named after him.
Some DNA results allow for a ball-park estimation of when your match was likely, ie a likely match within X years.
Like all things, a little luck is needed.
I have one case of an American with an adopted surname, who took a DNA test. Nearly every match was with Armstrongs. He followed that lead & found that his ancestor was an Armstrong by birth, & that this ancestor  was orphaned during the American Civil War. Some neighbours took him in & raised him with their surname!
Good luck
Bob

[ChrisWibs]

I take it the person in question died in England?

If so you will be lucky to find the truth of the matter because of course Scottish records are so much better at recording relationships.

Scottish records do sometimes record the name of a father for an illegitimate child.

I have two in my family.

One is my great great grandfather. When he died it was stated that he was reputedly the child of F a farmer of Millhill Troqueer and M his servant. There were other things pointing to him being F's son. He carried F's surname and worked on his farm. at least 1 of his children was baptised in F's house and his grave at New Abbey is in proximity to F's and next to F's mothers, that is his own grandmother's.

The other is where another farmer was living with his servant and had several children by her. They eventually married but all the children had the reputed father's surname.

[arwela]

Contact the parish where the child was born. There should be a Bastardy Bond or Order with the father's name. Back in the 1880s the illegitimate child's mother was brough in front of the local church hierarchy where she was made to name the father as he would have to sign for the responsibility of the child. Problem may be that the records are gone.

[Forfarian]

Contact the parish where the child was born. There should be a Bastardy Bond or Order with the father's name.

No such thing in Scotland. And the surviving Kirk Session records are pretty much all in the National Records of Scotland, not in the individual parishes.

The Kirk Session minutes might contain information about this birth but by the late 19th century, as Emma said above, this was dying out. If you can get to the National Records of Scotand it would be worth a look at the Tundergarth Kirk Session minutes, just in case.

The other possibility is if the mother went to court to establish paternity. Many such cases, and as far as I know all the ones in southern Scotland, are indexed at https://www.scottishindexes.com/. However this would generally result in an entry in the RCE attached to the birth certificate, so in the absence of an RCE this probably didn't happen.

[Finley 1]

Re Bastardy bonds...


they are NOT readily available...

I have been chasing 3 Illegitimates in my family for many years and no JOY as to a bond the only possible connections are middle names of the Child!  sometimes the mother named the child after the 'putative'  father


xin

[grendlsmother]

Check the child's name carefully.  I have (1) named after the father, with the father's surname used as a middle name. (I have two of these.)  (2) Named after the father's mother, again with surname - finding her on the previous or next census can often give a clue especially if living very near the child's mother.

[arwela]

Re Bastardy bonds...

they are NOT readily available...

I have been chasing 3 Illegitimates in my family for many years and no JOY as to a bond the only possible connections are middle names of the Child!  sometimes the mother named the child after the 'putative'  father

A bastardy bond / order is a form the real father has to sign to accept responsibility for the child.
The mother is confronted by local parishioners and made to tell them who the father is. He is brought in to sign the bastardy order. This record will be kept somewhere as they are never destroyed. Ours will be kept at Aberystwth University.

[Finley 1]

I have seriously scraped my knees asking and searching for one such bond in the relevant places and it doesnt exist.. x 3 times drives me crazy..   only need to know 3 people in my tree as they are direct line... and been looooooooking for ever ...
Brixworth - 1 and Leicestershire  2

ho hum



something I found for one of mine   

xin

[Forfarian]

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.