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

[toni*]

i disagree with you there aghadowey
however i would think the birth announcement would say a son / daughter born to .... ..... and wouldn't most probably mention the pugative father
you would also need to know the approx date of birth and the local newspapers name of that time and be prepared to search a couple of weeks either side.

[aghadowey]

Toni- I have been through hundreds of years of newspapers and never remember seeing a birth announcement for an illegitimate child put in the newspaper - except perhaps a member of a royal family or very noble family.
One of the most likely places to find an illegitimate father's child is in baptismal records (depending on whether or not the clergyman put down the information).   

[julieann1]

Thank you all for your suggestions. She is not a direct ancestor, so I think I'll have to let this one go.  It is just that it was a mystery, I had never heard of her being illegitimate, and my grandma spent a lot of time with these aunts and uncles, until I got the 1891 census and then her birth cert.  It's possible that Frances herself thought that Gideon was her father, and there is a possibility that he was.  I am really interested in this because it would be a light on Gideon's character (my g-grandfather).  I have heard stories about him being a difficult character, but on the other side one of his daughters once told me that he was 'a good man'.  Did he bring up someone elses child as his own? He was illegitimate himself, and brought up by his grandparents (which seems to have been the usual pattern), which may have given him the insight to do something different.  Or he could have been Frances' father, but not married her mother as he was working and living away in Ayr.
Unfortunately, all the remaining members of the family where in ignorance her illegitimacy.
Julie

[toni*]

Toni- I have been through hundreds of years of newspapers and never remember seeing a birth announcement for an illegitimate child put in the newspaper - except perhaps a member of a royal family or very noble family.
One of the most likely places to find an illegitimate father's child is in baptismal records (depending on whether or not the clergyman put down the information).   

Yes i didnt say it would be in the newspaper what i said was there might be a birth announcement for the child in the newspaper,

[aghadowey]

Toni- not trying to start an arguement but I think you misunderstood what I said-

I have been through hundreds of years of newspapers and never remember seeing a birth announcement for an illegitimate child put in the newspaper.

The next bit of information was concerning where a father's name might be written down.

[toni*]

i think we have crossed wires i originally said places where the fathers name might be written down and then i said there are others ways but nothing can be proven concretely using the other ways (i did not list them)  and then i said about press announcements mentioning the birth, i wodner if the paretns married after the birth the child muight be their with both parents of if it be in another parish it might be assumed the parents to be married but yes i very much doubt it would say born .... the son/daughter of ..... & .......

[Willow 4873]

i wodner if the paretns married after the birth the child muight be their with both parents of if it be in another parish it might be assumed the parents to be married but yes i very much doubt it would say born .... the son/daughter of ..... & .......

Very valid point Toni*

Whilst doing a look up yesterday on a George James Howman the whole family suddenly vanished in 1861 & 1871

Looked up his baptism on the IGI and found it 9.7.1826 with only mother Sarah listed and a bit further down the page the marriage of Sarah Howman to Benjamin James 29.12.1827

Then bingo we found him using the surname of James 

Willow x

[Trees]

Your thread makes me realise how lucky I've been Grand dad grew up in a cottage Home but appeared on the 1901 census with his mother a widow and father who was literally "the lodger" He was registered in his name but entered the orphanagewith her name which he used from then on grt Gran never married Gt Granfather who skidadled leaving her to die in the workhouse infirmary and two children with no one to care for them. Then I also found a couple of Bastardy examinations in parish chests where the father has been named So I must be lucky  
Trees

[julieann1]

It seems to be down to luck.  I've had a couple of illegitimate children whose fathers have been named on an RCE, several whose fathers have been named on the parish reg.  One or two who have taken their father's surname. And a few, including Gideon and Frances above, who are impossible to track down