COMPLETED - Illegitimacy on my timeline

[doddsie4]

          One Illegitimate birth has the true father as the middle name, with the surname being my grandfather.      The other two illegitimate births don't mention the real father, and my grandfather's surname is there instead.    They don't even mention that the babies are illegitimate, but my father knew the truth, because there were whispers about it between my grandfather & grandmother and my father and his two brothers, although young at the time, had big ears.

[doddsie4]

          Must explain something that might make it clearer.      The first three children were born between 1910 and 1915, the last being my father.    Then there was a gap and the 4th child was born 10 years later in 1925.  The last three children were not my grandfathers.

[Rosinish]

One Illegitimate birth has the true father as the middle name, with the surname being my grandfather.      The other two illegitimate births don't mention the real father, and my grandfather's surname is there instead.    They don't even mention that the babies are illegitimate,

It appears your g/mother registered all 3 illegitimate births but wasn't truthful about her husband not being their father hence he is named automatically!
Her surname at the time would be the surname of the illegitimate children regardless as they'd inherit her legal surname which was the same as what it was when the 3 legitimate children were born.

Annie

[Rosinish]

          Grandmother had illegitimate children, back in the 1920's.      As she lived in a small village, her husband allowed the children to take his surname to avoid the awful scandal that would follow if the truth came out.   It was covered up each time.      It would have brought great shame on my grandmother otherwise.               

Having read your other posts, your g/f had no say in the matter of him being named as the father of the illegitimate children, quite simply your g/m was short on the truth.

If she'd been truthful, those 3 children would also have been indexed under her maiden surname.

Annie

[doddsie4]

     Rosinish,
                    You're right.    I have always had it at the back of my mind.     Those three have the wrong surname!!!     

                     Reluctant to reveal names because I am trying to protect someone who married one of the illegitimate children and doesn't know the history of what happened.     

[Stanwix England]

I've had this situation crop up a few time and Ancestry let me alter it like this.

[Stanwix England]

You have a range of options that you can choose to name the different fathers, as seen below. I choose step, which isn't quite right for me but it felt like the closest one.

[Rosinish]

Those three have the wrong surname!!!       

No, they don't have the wrong surname!

Your g/m (maiden name) married your g/f (surname) & she became Mrs surname.

Any children born to her then would inherit her now 'legal' surname unless she remarried or reverted to her maiden name.

She doesn't lose her marital surname just because they separated!

Annie

[Pheno]

Doddsie, I think what you are really saying is not that they don't have the right surname but that they don't have the surname you would expect knowing that their father was not the husband of their mother.

However, legally those children are viewed as children of both the husband and wife and therefore have the wife's surname unless their actual father went along to the registry office at the time of registration of their births and accepted responsibility for their conception.

Unless the mother was accompanied by the actual father at the time of registration she should not have registered them with any other surname other than hers (unless she lied) - so they were registered correctly according to procedures at the time.

Whether you accept this now is another matter - and you can change the situation which shows on Ancestry.

Pheno