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  • ileegitimate child?

    hi guys. i have a child that may be illegitimate,but whose parents married in the end. so here goes.

    hannah wright born 1848, leeds. and one born srossfield in hunslet.
    census says alwoodley. 1881 says her mother is mary crossfield.

    1851 otley harewood

    hannah weight, age 3 born alwoodley. visitor. (whenever a person is labelled 'visitor' on my family census, they are always family members)
    john crosfield, 60, born leeds.gead
    sarah maria crosfield, 61, born weardley. wife.
    more kids, but most important is joseph age 24, born eccup.

    1851 otley harewood

    this is hannah's mother. mary wright, 23 born alwoodley.sister. she is living with 3 of her brothers.

    mary wright and joseph crosfield were married later in 1851 in otley.

    1861 chapel allerton, hunslet

    joseph crosfield ,34, born eccup. head
    mary, 33, born alwoodley. wife
    other kids, also hannah write, 13, born alwoodley. daughter

    1870 joseph dies

    1871 leeds

    mary is with her children from joseph and her mariage

    hannah is staying with mary's mother elizabeth wright, as her grandaughter.
    her surname is wright.

    1881 leeds

    hannah w.crossfield, 33, born 1848, alwoodley, daughter
    mary crossfield, 54, born alwoodley.head

    hannah dissapears and i cant find a record of her. mary dies in 1890.


    my problem is this. may is hannah's mother. she is living with her mother in 1861 and 1881. in 1871, she is with mary's mother elizabeth. in 1851 she is called joseph's daughter bur her surname is wright, or some other variation.

    so she's illegitimate to mary. does this mean mary and joseph had a fling, got pregnant, and had hannah, marrying when she was three, and starting a proper family?

    joseph says he's her father, and she is visiting him in 1851, in the house with his parents. she would only be visiting him if he was her father right? because her mother was at her usual home.

    so if hannah is joseph and mary's illegitimate daughter, why is she called wright, her mother's maiden name, indtead of crosfield. and wouldn't her name change to crossfield once her parentswere married?

  • #2
    Lots of couples married just before or a few weeks/months/years after their first child was born.

    The children I've found often retained their original name as that is what they were registered with.

    Sometimes they did adopt their fathers' name, sometimes not.

    And of course there's always the possibility that she wasn't Joseph's child but he took her on.

    These days you can re-register a child following parents' marriage, but I don't think our ancestors would be so bothered about it.
    ~ with love from Little Nell~
    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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    • #3
      It has only been possible to legitimise a child since, um, late 1800s, following the marriage of their natural parents to each other.

      But you could, and still can, call yourself any old name you want to. No one has a "legal" surname, even today.

      I also think it has a lot to do with who was recording the info...some people are more anxious about what they perceive to be correct information, and some people think it is no one else's business!

      OC

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      • #4
        I have a rellie who`s fathers info on the marriage cert of 1858, is blank. Do I presume he was illigitimate ???

        Kathlyn

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        • #5
          Probably, but not absolutely! He may have been illegitimate, or he may just have hated his father, or his father may have been a disgrace to the family.

          OC

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          • #6
            Or the chap filling in the form just forgot.
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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            • #7
              funny how some families seem to change their names willy-nilly, others seem unnecessarily pedantic about sticking to one.

              OH's family... he & all his siblings remember "Auntie Jane" from their childhood. A very fierce, mustached lady, hands clamped firmly to a large handbag that it was rumoured contained thousands of pounds in old five-pound notes. (No-one knows what became of it when she died in 1970!)

              It turns out that she was illegitimate, born about 2 years before her mother married. The 1901 census has her with her mother's maiden name, living with her newly-married mother & husband. They had several other children, but Jane appears to have kept her mother's maiden name & used it when she married.
              From all this, we deduce that her father WASN'T Mary's husband.

              The fact that she arrived some years before the marriage was never mentioned by any of my MIL's generation. Her one surviving sister is either unaware or (more likely) keeping schtum about it.
              Vicky

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              • #8
                My gt x 2 grandfather's 2nd wife came to their marriage with two illegitimate children of her own, confusingly with same names as 2 of gt x 2 grandfather's children.

                On the next census they have their mother's maiden name. Census after that, they both have his name.

                One of them used his surname when she married. The boy reverted to his original surname. Maybe to differentiate between him and his stepbrother. Who knows?
                ~ with love from Little Nell~
                Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                • #9
                  One of OH's ancestors had 3 husbands, all of whom died young, between censuses.
                  First census: Mary A, daughter
                  next census: Mary B, daughter, John B, son
                  next census: Mary C, daughter, John C, son, Billy C, son.

                  When Mary married she did so as Mary A.
                  Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                  • #10
                    One of my 3xg grandfathers was born before his parents married and kept his mother's name all his life. However, when he died, his widow started calling herself by her husband's father's name. I only found her in the census because her widowed daughter-in-law was living with her.
                    Jenny

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                    • #11
                      so i just assume that hannah was josephs?

                      i found a possible death- hannah wright, age 37. leeds, sept 1886

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                      • #12
                        Personally, I'd be worried about ASSUMING who her father was, although it does seem quite likely.

                        Have you looked for a baptism for Mary? Quite often a baptism gives the name of the reputed father.

                        I'd be inclined to pencil her in as "probably the daughter of Joseph", for now.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          You can't really assume that she was his. Have you got a copy of her birth certificate and baptism entry (if she was baptised) to see if they give any clues?
                          KiteRunner

                          Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                          (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                          • #14
                            there's a hannah wright, and crosfield for 1848, one leeds, one hunslet. and can't find a baptism

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