Need more info on Chester Harrsion Callahan and Michael Callahan

[jilian]

Sorry I haven't replied to this.  We just got back our internet service today after losing it in a storm on Saturday.

I had also sent an email to the Edmonton archives and had a reply back from them.  I was able to get the name of the first man that Lucy married and found out that on Chester's birth certificate it is marked Illegitimate in the space for father.  So in some ways I'm back to square one.  I still don't know for sure who Chester's father was.  Lucy was married to a man in Oct. 1894 and Chester was born in March 1895.  On the marriage certificate to Michael Callahan there is a note on the bottom that says "Lucy Harrison was married October 16 1894 to John Parsons of which marriage a return was sent in. Subsequently John Parsons was convicted of Bigamy at Maple Creek." 

I am still a novice at all this family tree genealogy stuff and not really sure what is the protocol when information like this comes up.  Do I assume that John Parsons is Chester's father or do I go with Michael Callahan since Chester took his name?  Or does the family tree end with Chester since that is all that I know for sure?

Jill

[J.J.]

If she says the child was illegitimate, would he not then belong to a man to whom she was not married...Unfortunately, there could also have been a man in between if the marriage collapsed right away...as evidence, recently DNA is being tested and many people are happy to have this method of testing, but if no relatives are tested, still a dead end... I feel for you as this makes it tougher to follow...

Oh, wait, I just realized, are you saying that this WAS the second marriage for him, thus the marriage was null and void  making the baby illegitimate even if it was Parson's child??

[jilian]

I'm guessing that either Lucy's first "husband" was the father of the baby or someone that she met before him.  She married John Parsons in Oct. 1894 and five months later (March 1895) gave birth to an illegitimate baby boy.  Birth certificate just said Baby Harrison (Lucy's maiden name).  Then eight months later (Nov. 1895) she married Michael Callahan.

I'm assuming that John Parsons was already married and that Lucy's marriage to him was annulled, or whatever they did back then, before Chester was born, therefore making him illegitimate.

When Chester married my husband's grandmother he listed Lucy Harrison and Michael Callahan as his parents.  So if Michael wasn't his biological father he at least took on his name. 

I'm just not sure how I put this in the family tree.  Do I consider it like an adoption?  That Michael Callahan is Chester's "adopted" father since I don't know anything for sure?