Natural father

[PAK]

I have found the will of an ancestor in which he refers to his “natural father” Edward. This is in Cheshire in the 17th century. I haven’t come across this phrase before and whilst the meaning is obvious, I wonder if it signifies something unusual if it has to be specified. My ancestor often refers to both sets of grandparents so I wondered if for some reason he was closer to them.

Or maybe it is just a figure of speech that is used from time to time. Does anyone have any expertise on this?

[Rosinish]

I think for people to have an opinion, you'd need to provide at least a paragraph to see what the context was?

Annie

[Lady Di]

There are so many opinions about the meaning of "Natural father" that it's impossible to know what your specific family member had in mind.

Various meanings are:

 - Biological father of a child
 - not biological father but legal adoptive father
 - father who shares DNA with a child
 - Natural parent means a parent by blood, marriage, or adoption
 - Natural father means a nonadoptive father, whether biologically related to the child or not.
 - Natural father is the father of an illegitimate child

... and that's only a few variations from Mr Google 
Try a Google search for yourself and you'll find there's no definitive answer, frustratingly.

My best guess would be to ascertain if said father was registered as father on birth of child, or was named at christening - did they share the same home etc and form your own opinion

[PAK]

Thanks for this, Lady Di. You've confirmed my suspicion that it could be any number of situations, which is not unreasonable. I just wanted to be sure that there was no specific connotation to the phrase.

[Rosinish]

Is this part of the will the only mention of 'Natural father'?

Why not post the paragraph which may give a hint to the meaning as opposed to the possibilities posted as I think context may give you a better idea although maybe not?

Annie