Who’s the real mother of these children ?

[Annie65115]

In my research, I've found quite a few women who had a few illegitimate childen that seem all to have the same father. The clue has usually been that in amongst the clutch of children are one or two registered with a different surname, and that a census or two later, Mum + children are living with someone of that surname. or the children are given a different surname as a middle name. I suspect that Dad wasn't free to marry.

Women did what they had to do to keep body and soul together and to keep children fed, and sometimes that meant entering professions where the was a high risk of pregnancy (you know what I mean!) And sometimes a woman was what we would now consider "vulnerable" and was taken advantage of by men.

And of course there's always the rather nasty possibility that the children were fathered by someone else in the family -----

There are lots of reasons for women to have several illegitimate children. You might think of more.

[iluleah]

Shepshed was a small close knit community.... my great grandfathers first wife was from Shepshed, she was illegitimate along with her 5 siblings and looking at her family it was not unusual as two of them went onto have children without being married

One thing I have found in Shepshed is that the women married or not, worked mostly as FWK, spinners, Lace Embroiderers , Glovers, Cheveners and the mens employent tended to be in quarries, mines, or as boatmen which suggests dangerous jobs and also a potential transient male population which may explain why more then 'normal' ( for that time) there are more single mothers

[forte]

Have checked GRO and  none of the children have a mother's maiden name shown
However on my subscription site Arthur b 1864 and William 1870 have a mother's maiden name of Cotton.

[forte]

Sorry shouldn't have been so hasty.  On same subscription site are 2 baptisms in Shepshed.
William 23/1/1871 mother's name Mary
Arthur  18/12/1864  mother again Mary

No clues on  GRO, b or bp for Lois.

Hope this helps