Illegitimacy & Dead Ends

[david64]

I am thinking that DNA testing may be the only option.  Luckily for me, it's my husband's paternal line.

Does your person have siblings?  Did the mother eventually marry?  Supposedly, it wasn't uncommon for the mother to marry the father at a later date.  If you have siblings, you could try tracing their father, as that's a possibility.  For me, mine was an only child - another dead end.

I would love to hear other ideas.

I've also thought of DNA testing, but that would obviously require a suspicion - unless you plan on getting the nation swabbed  Luckily I have some notes from my great-aunt giving the name Lewis living on a certain farm and the year 1855 and found a Lewis working on that farm who was born in 1854.

Don't know about siblings or what happened to the mother for sure. This is where you start wishing that your ancestors had uncommon names.

If you are lucky to have them living in a sparse area, you may be able to get something from church records. The other option is to contact all living relatives that might know. Or you could try a psychic, but I am yet to hear of positive results from that.

[acorngen]

But DNA will not prove that he is the father however it will tell you the likelihood of a connection and how many generations ago.  Personally I dont like DNA within Genealogy

Rob

[andarah]

The only benefit to DNA testing would be if someone else is a match as a relative, and they have done some tracing, then you have a family grouping to work forward or back from - it's better than the nothing that that we have now.  It could give us a lot of erroneous leads, but I'll take anything right now.  If there is no serious connection, then it provides nothing and it was a waste of money.

Definitely try asking everyone!  You are lucky with respect to the fact that people are still living.  I only have one person who knew the great grandfather, and his memories are those of a 5 year old.  If he was born in 1918, there could definitely still be people who remember something.  Anything you get will be family folklore that will have to be proven, but it will give you directions to look in.

[acorngen]

Andarah,

But the fact is with DNA testing it will only tell you a percentile chance of being related and where the likely common ancestor is so that could be as little as 5 generations or as many as can be conceived so for example if it is 13 generations back and another researcher as that generation you still have to find the other 12 generations first.  So assuming there are 2 male children every generation the amount of possible lines would be over 4000 male connections before reaching generation 13.  This only works with males as well.  MtA testing would give an even greater number of lines to trace and the percentile would be much lower thus rendering it useless. 

The only interesting part of DNA in my opinion is the haplo groups and the originating area for each one.

Rob

[Shropshire Lass]

I concur with the information others have said.  Had it been years before you could have tried bastardy bonds but at 1918 that is not possible.  One option is the will of the mother if she left one.  She may have named him in there.

I found the father of an illegitimate child born at this time through the Petty Sessions records.

[david64]

I found the father of an illegitimate child born at this time through the Petty Sessions records.

Thanks for the info. Will consult those if available.

[acorngen]

Petty sessions are courts similar to todays magistrates so I am guessing the mother is trying to get support for her child.  Thats an interesting point to consider and one I have never considered so many thx

Rob

[arkay]

Hi David,

Don't completely discount the father's name on a marriage certificate! 

My illegitimate ancestor was married using her mother's maiden name, but she also named her father on the cert.  On researching this man, I found out that he was living right next door at the time of her birth.  He was an immigrant with an unusual name, and the child was given a similar middle name (Bennis, instead of Benussi).  Her mother probably said his name as she heard it through an accent, but the daughter put his correct name, address and occupation in full - and broke down my brick wall!

I believe illegitimate children were quite often given the father's surname as their middle name.

Arkay

[acorngen]

Hi David,

Don't completely discount the father's name on a marriage certificate! 

My illegitimate ancestor was married using her mother's maiden name, but she also named her father on the cert.  On researching this man, I found out that he was living right next door at the time of her birth.  He was an immigrant with an unusual name, and the child was given a similar middle name (Bennis, instead of Benussi).  Her mother probably said his name as she heard it through an accent, but the daughter put his correct name, address and occupation in full - and broke down my brick wall!

I believe illegitimate children were quite often given the father's surname as their middle name.

Arkay

This is of course true as well however in genealogy we work with facts and unless you can prove as you did beyond reasonable doubt then it should not be placed in the tree but kept as a possible.

My own 3 x great grandfater had none of the above but named one person as his father on his marriage cert.  I have tried and canot find any proof so whilst I have the info recroded it will not go in my tree

Rob