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[hdw]

The subject of illegitimacy often comes up. If you have Scottish ancestors and one of them was illegitimate, a useful source of information is the local kirk-session records. Unfortunately they are not as easily accessible as the old parish records (OPRs) which you can check on the Scotlandspeople website. I'm lucky in that I was living and working in Edinburgh when I started doing my family-tree research in the early 1980s and I could take odd days and half-days off my annual holiday entitlement to go to Register House - for B,M and D records, censuses and OPRs - and to the Scottish Record Office (now the National Archives of Scotland) next-door for kirk-session and other records.
In the Church of Scotland, which most Scots belonged to, the parish minister and the elders of the kirk comprised the kirk-session, which met weekly to distribute the poor's money, chastise fornicators, etc. A pregnant unmarried woman would be cross-examined about the father of her child, and a record kept of the proceedings.
For example, on checking the death-certificate of my great-great-grandfather Robert Stephenson in Melrose in 1863, I found that he was illegitimate, and his reputed father was one Hugh Stephenson, "teacher". I proceeded to waste about a year looking off and on at trade directories and other Borders records, looking for details of parish schoolmasters, until I had the brainwave of looking at the Melrose kirk-session records. There, I found that my 3 x great-granny Alison Moffat was summoned three times to appear before the session, and finally threatened with punishment for her "contumacy" if she continued to absent herself, so she finally and grudgingly turned up at the next meeting of the session and admitted that the father of her child was Hugh Stephenson, farmer in the parish of Gifford, East Lothian. That gave me a whole new area of research. I discovered that the Stephensons were a prominent Northumbrian farming dynasty who had taken tenancies of farms all over the Lothians and Borders, and John Prebble, in his book "The Highland Clearances", gives them "credit" for introducing into Scotland the new improved breed of Cheviot sheep that would eventually lead to the depopulation of Highland glens.
All down to checking the kirk-session records as a supplement to the OPR.
Harry

[brigidmac]

wow Hdw that's amazing research
my scots were mostly legitimate

my  English grandmothers middle name was the clue leading to her birth father and we got his full name from an affiliation order at Cheshire record office ...was able to trace his history .

but her birth mother was more difficult to trace ..we knew from a letter that she'd remarried and had a legitimate son but I dont think we would have found them without the DNA connections as she had a common surname and used a different first name on marriage ..maybe because she married in a synagogue..!

[Finley 1]

I have oodles of wonderful Scottish Relations.

This DNA has proven our connection..  ---

My Fathers - father had, literally run away from his first family in Scotland...
He was gassed in France and dropped off in the Midlands to recoup, where he met and fell for  my Nan and they went on to live  happily as a family - so much so that they died within a month or so of each other - devoted.. bless them.
Well that's the story that started all this research.... business..

I needed to check and double check.. I have the paper trail.. and its not an easy read or discovery..   But my Pops was right to be proud of his heritage...

Nobody can get through their allotted life span without kicking up the dust a little along the way.

I eventually found the lady that Grandad left, and discounted the stories, that had been passed around the family.  I half heartedly attempted  to check her out..  I haven't dug deep enough as yet... its a tricky one.

Thank goodness - I found NO TRACE of deserted Children... the Wife was enough for me... poor lady.. 

She actually outlived my Grandfather......   and was still named as his Wife when she died..

That's a bit of a heartbreaker for me.... I wonder if she waited and hoped..  need to find more.. and now this has awoken my need.. I may do so.. bless her ----


Now Spooky thing is.. and I am strange I know.. but I think this is Spooky

I had my first daughter before I had any idea whatsoever regarding this lady............

But somehow her name is the one I chose ... Spooky Coincidence.. I feel.

so I wonder should I now leave it as is.. or see if I can discover how her life panned out.

 

Xin

[Wiggy]

Hi Harry,


Are any kirk-sessions records available via SP or FindMyPast.

I have a ggg grandfather who says he came from Fife, but we can't find an OPR to 'fit'.   It is believed he is illegitimate, so this could be the way to go.

Living in Australia prevents me from accessing these records in person!


Wiggy.

[hdw]

It's a long time since I did my research and in those days kirk-session records hadn't been digitised and were mostly kept in the record office in Edinburgh. Later, there was a policy of decentralisation and lots of kirk-session and other local records were returned to the place they had come from, if there was a suitable record repository that could look after them. For example, records from east Fife were sent to St. Andrews to be stored in the university library there. Borders records are kept at the Hub in Hawick.

Maxwell Ancestry are busy digitising lots of local records, e.g. they recently digitised the records of Jedburgh Sheriff Court.

Harry

[Wiggy]

Thanks for that . . .  will investigate.     

Wiggy

[anne_p]

Through familty history sites, I know many of my DNA matches or how other matches link in.

However, yesterday, I was looking at trees of random DNA matches and  looked more closely at our "common" matches.
It became apparent how everyone else was linked to each other but, nothing in their trees resembled mine, except they family originate in the same general area of my maternal family.

Last night, the penny finally dropped.
There is no father listed on my mother's birth certificate, his identity was never discussed.

I know it sounds totally daft as I have years of research experience but, it never really occurred  to me that there would be a biological father out there with ancestors of his own.

I think that I have stumbled upon his ancestors.
 

[sugarfizzle]

anne_p

Many adoptees have their DNA tested purely to find out possible parentage. You may have stumbled on his ancestors, but might find it difficult to prove which one was your father, unless the matches are very close to you.

However, be prepared for the day when a half-sibling or similar matches you, they may or may not be aware of his past.

Regards Margaret

[anne_p]

Sugarfizzle,
It's not my parentage, it's my mother's.

I completely forgot that she would have had a biological father and I have no desire to find his identity

I simply realised that I have stumbled upon his ancestors