Missing father on birth certificate

[Guest]

I'm trying to find the father's name of Harriett Hatchman, born 22 Jan 1857 in Berners Roothing, Essex.
Her birthcertificate does not have her father's name on it... Mother is Emma Hatchman (sometimes spelled as Hatchment, b. abt. 1837 in Belchamp Roothing, Essex).

Emma Hatchman married Charles Brand September 18th, 1858, a year after Harriett was born. Charles Brand died 1863, and Emma remarried George Jolley in 1866.
Harriett is on censusrecords as Hatchman/ Brand/ and Jolley.

Is there any other way of figuring out who her father was?

Thank you :D

Wendy.

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Hi Wendy

Welcome to the forum

It isn't my field of expertise but we have an article on the site you may find helpful.
There is a section within our wiki that explains the laws regarding illegitimate births and may point you towards some ideas for avenues to search.

Illegitimacy - Family Tree Forum

[KiteRunner]

If Charles Brand left a will then there is a faint chance it might say "my natural daughter Harriet" in it. Or indeed it might say "my stepdaughter Harriet" or something which would indicate he wasn't her father.

Also there is a chance that if she was baptised, the baptism entry might give the father's name.

And if she got married there is a chance she might have put her real father's name on the marriage certificate, though only if she knew who it was of course!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

And if she got married there is a chance she might have put her real father's name on the marriage certificate, though only if she knew who it was of course!

But if she put Charles Brand down as her father (if she married) you won't know whether she believed him to be her natural father or her step father! So this only works if she put a different name :(

[zilkens]

My grandmother's birth certificate showed no father. She was named Alberta Williams Maunder, and I have wondered if the father could have been Albert Williams. I would be interested in any comments about this.
Ken.

[writer-ros]

If you have access to the parish registers, there is always the possibility the father is named at baptism. Other records worth looking at in the local record offices would be the quarter sessions records - it's always possible that the mother filed a paternity order to make the father pay for the child.

If you cannot get to the Essex record office, you could try hiring someone to do this for you.

Ros

[Darksecretz]

My grandmother's birth certificate showed no father. She was named Alberta Williams Maunder, and I have wondered if the father could have been Albert Williams. I would be interested in any comments about this.
Ken.

Hi Ken,

I guess it would depend who Albert Williams was wouldnt it? if Albertas mother married albert later on or not? seems very likey that he was the father and Alberta named after her 'dad' esp if they were not married at the time,

My own Grandma was bapt Florence Shelton Brown, 'Shelton' being her middle name, but her mother was also unmarried, but the father was Thomas Shelton.. (they later did marry) but were not married when my gran came into this world.

from my experience I'd say it is highly likely that Alberta is Berts daughter.

[WendyDebrock]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Her marriage certificate shows George Jolley as father, so that's no help.
I live in Ireland, so I might just have to plan a few days away to the record office

I'll check it out.

[lizzy]

My mother's birth cert doesn't give her father's name and her mother is shown as a widow, I thought it very sad that she gave birth to my mother after being widowed, until I got a copy of her older sister's birth cert and found that grandma was a widow when the sister was born 3 years earlier!! On mum's marriage cert he father is down as A. W...., deceased, I understand that it was a kindly clergyman who didn't want mum embarrassed in front of her new in-laws. I have found out that grandma's husband's name was George, but he was obviously not the girls father.

[Janet]

I purchased a Birth Certificate for a child born 1857, as I knew the mother did not marry until 1860, and was curious as to who the father was. There was no father recorded on the Birth Cert, but when I was in the area doing some family history reserach, I visited the church and found many gems within the Parish Chest to include the father of the child recorded in the baptismal register, so that may be one way of finding out. It also gave the name of his parish which was some distance from where she lived so that was even better. There was no way that a child was going to be living off parish funds unless the person came up with the name of the father, which they could then chase for payments.

I asked the Church Warden why it was recorded in the Baptismal Register but not on the statutory certificate, and she said that this was often done to protect the person from further trouble to keep it within the parish as illegitimacy was such a stigma.

Janet

[Margaret in Burton]

Janet

I believe that the father had to be present at the birth registration if the couple were not married. Otherwise there is no father listed.

If the couple are married then the husband is presumed to be the father.

If this wasn't the case, unsuspecting men could have been named as the father of any illegitimate child.

[Olde Crone Holden]

However, I'm sure many women lied about being married, to save their child the embarrassment of being illegitimate!

And some people lied about being the parents of an illegitimate child - one of my 2 x GGFs is registered as the fifth child of a long married couple. He wasn't their child, he was the illegitimate son of his "father's" sister.

OC

[Richard]

All I can say is my 4xgreat grandfather had his wifes illigitimate son baptised as his, so he cannot have been too afraid of the hell fires. I think 'Victorian morality' at least is a myth, I think their time was just as rife with 'sin' as now if not worse, which suggests they wernt too god fearing. In fact I recently googled the name of the pastor Horace Meyer who baptised my g-g grandad in the village of Ropley in 1867, and was taken a back to find an account by him of his predecessor, who also baptised family members. Apparantly he was strongly against drinking, and his stance upset the locals so much they would regularly turn out and heckle his sermons in churchon a Sunday. Eventually they tried to kill him by lurring him down a deserted pathway and trying to spook his horse and overturn his carriage!...God fearing folk indeed!

In principle though I agree it's unlikely men would have baptised illigitimate children as their own in their own parish as the vicar would have no doubt known the truth, if they suddenly moved, especially to a big city parish with a busy vicar (as in my case did 4xg grandad moved into Northampton from a small village) then it is more likely they would.