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how often did it happen?

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  • how often did it happen?

    Hi

    thanks to the 1911 census I have found my great grandmother. She was a servant living in London and was still at the same address in 1916 when my nan was born. She never married so we have no clues about who my nans father is.

    Does anyone think it likely that the "man of the house" was my nans father? My great nans address is still the same house on the birth certificate, but my nan was born in the May and he died the following december (or that quarter).

    Unfortunatly the birth records do not survive for the workhouse my nan was born in, so i cant find out any more information. My nan was sent to live with her grandparents in Suffolk until the mid 1920's when they died. Her mum was still working in London and so my nan went back to her as i guess she was then of "working" age.

    I guess i have a few questions really:

    how likely is that that after my g nan got pregnant they kept her on in the house if it was just any old boy that had got her in that situation? However would this man of money let his illigitimate child be born in a workhouse?

    She was 44 when my nan was born. by all accounts her one and only child, if she was promiscuous (sp?) surely there would have been others? If there were why was my nan the only one to go to her grandparents (unless of course they died at birth or very early). If she was with only one man, then why not marry him? I understand she may not have been the "marrying" type, but surely that is better than to live with the stigma of being an unmarried mother?

    The only child of the marriage of the house owners (at the time) was 8, so too young for it to be him but there were also no other children either alive or otherwise for the family. None also born after 1911 on FreeBMD.

    I understand that all these are just complete guess work and we will never know who her father was, i just wonder about probabilities. My eldest aunt is in her 70's so perhaps the fact that this man was German, or anything else i can find might spark some kind of memory of my nan ever mentioning something to her.

    thanks for your help
    Robyne


    Name interests: Alderton, Osborne, Danslow, Hanley, Bowkett, Lakin, Elliott, Banner, Walters, Reed, Deighton, Sleight, Dungar ;)

  • #2
    I guess it happened quite a lot - certainly my widowed great Grandmother somehow ended up pregnant - with 3 smallish daughters and working at the same time, you wonder she had the time ( or energy!).

    her son was registered as son of her late husband - impossible he'd been dead 2 years, and by some strange coinsidence the boy was given the surname of the people for whom she worked as a middle name. Their Surname was George so that maybe a co-incedence but who knows? We never will.

    After child was born she stopped working, but someone clearly gave her money for something, certainly for some years - times were hard but not desperately so.
    Jess

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    • #3
      The workhouse was also routinely used as a hospital in those days and she may have given birth there because of her age and the fact it was a first pregnancy.

      I honestly don't think you will ever know who the father was. It could have been head of house, or it could equally have been someone else. Her employers may have been kindly people who felt sorry for her and allowed her to remain during her pregnancy, or perhaps the pregnancy was concealed? Not difficult then, with tight corsets etc.

      If this man's wife was still alive, then she would have been a saint to allow your great nan to remain in the household!

      Have you tried to find a Maintenance order for the child? This would probably be in the Magistrate's Court at that time.

      OC

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      • #4
        A long shot, but have you checked to see if the householder left a will?

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        • #5
          Thanks OC and Merry. I have only found them today so i havent looked for anything yet. I will try both the wills and maintenance order although im not sure where to look for those, do you have any ideas? The birth and residence was Willesden in London/Middlesex although my nan spent her early years in Suffolk
          Robyne


          Name interests: Alderton, Osborne, Danslow, Hanley, Bowkett, Lakin, Elliott, Banner, Walters, Reed, Deighton, Sleight, Dungar ;)

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          • #6
            If she was a really good servant and the employer had a good relationship with her, they might forgive a lapse. Hard to say really. Maybe she had been lured by a promise of marriage.

            She may have had a string of miscarriages and stillbirths, or been not very fertile, this may have been a menopause baby.

            Really impossible to tell, though its intriguing I know. I've always wondered about a gt gt gt aunt who had 2 illegitimate children (that I know of) 11 years apart, who were with her mother or siblings on censuses. Don't know if these two children ever even lived together, let alone with their mother, who married much later on when they were grown up.
            ~ with love from Little Nell~
            Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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