Which Isaac Taylor is the father ?.

[Hana]

In 1873 in Sulgrave, Emma Waters gave birth to an illegitimate daughter Bertha,on Bertha's birth cert she named the father as Isaac Taylor There were two Isaac Taylors born in the village within nine months in 1848/9 who could have been her father ,one stayed in the village all his life,married someone else and died there,the other one was last recorded in the village on the 1851 census,after that he was recorded in Northampton and Birmingham on subsequent census,I suppose he could have gone back for a visit but his parents also moved from the village.Sulgrave was a little village by Banbury and off the beaten track so you would only go there if you were visiting someone or you already lived there,it wasn't on the way to anywhere for passing strangers.

Although I can never know for certain if either of these men or even someone else was her father I'm drawn towards the one who stayed in the village,it's been niggling at me for a while so I've traced both men through the census from their birth to their deaths,a bit like one of the soaps with a couple of endings having been filmed.

In 1873 could she have named a man as the father without him knowing,it was a small village and everyone married everyone and if he knew he was the father would he have had to support the child,would there have been any records.

Hana

[Olde Crone Holden]

Something odd here.

Bertha was illegitimate, but her father was named on her birth certificate? The father would have had to attend registration with the mother in order for his name to go on the cert. Are you sure you have the correct certificate and if so, why do you think Bertha is illegitimate?

OC

[Hana]

Yes OC it does seem odd doesn't it,Bertha was my greatgrandmother and so Emma my gggrandmother.I have Bertha's birth cert and I would think it is definetly the correct one,searching 5yrs either side of her birth [1873 ] there are no more Bertha Waters and the only other Bertha Taylors were one in the IOW and one in Lancs.Her birth was registered as both Bertha Jane Taylor and Bertha Jane Waters which I thought only happened when the birth was illegitmate,for curiosity sake I actually sent for both birth certs even though I knew they were the same reference numbers and as expected they were both identical,I just thought there may have been a note on one of them ,also I cannot find a marriage for Emma to Isaac ,she never moved out of Sulgrave till after she married in 1890 and after she'd had another illegitimate child in 1879,this one she didn't name the father.

I wondered if they weren't married but he had acknowledged he was the father [ by being on the birth cert ]would he have had to support the child and would there be any official records.

Hana

[Olde Crone Holden]

The two surnames thingy is just a cross referencing device in the indexes.

He definitely went with her to register the birth then, as the registrar knew they weren't married (hence the cross referencing of surnames). By doing this, he admitted paternity.

It sounds as if any maintenance support would have been an informal arrangement. Otherwise, the mother would have had to take out a maintenance order in the magistrate's court. I have never seen any of these orders and I have been told that they are routinely destroyed once the child reaches a given age, probably 14 back then.