Genealogy Chat

My great grandfather was an illegitimate child and on his birth certificate there is writing on the edge of the record which makes me curious as to if it's the fathers name? I've really come at a dead end trying to get past it on this side of the family so any help with reading the writing or any tips about how to go further with research would be of great help! Family all from scotland so have been using SP.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144866544@N08/29189844396/in/dateposted-public/

I also have a cause of death that I am unable to make any sense out of so again any guidance there would be fantastic!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/144866544@N08/29189828906/in/dateposted-public/

Thank you!

Welcome to the boards Morag.

Albert More (illegitimate) and added between the More and (Illeg) is a name I can't read. EDIT - could it be Fleming?

In the margin i think it says Cler. Err. Col: 1 which I would take to say Clerical Error column 1 with probably the initials of the person recording that error. My thoughts would be that the name I can't read has been added.



the cause of death is Uraemia - google for an explanation, but basically kidney failure

Hi grey ghost,

Thanks, yes it is fleming, his mother's last name was fleming, but fleming seemed to a popular name in the town they lived in at that time, so the father is still a mystery.

Thanks as well for the cause of death, I was thinking it began with M but can now see it.

Might the mother have been known as but not married to More? If she was single then for registration purposes, the child was an illegitimate Fleming.

She was a widow of James More, whom she had 2 other children with and my great grandfather was born 2 years after his death. Could he still be an illegitimate Fleming?

I think I'm right in saying that a child was presumed to have the surname of it's mother's husband even if he was deceased - unless the real Father was present at the registration and admitted paternity in which case the child might be registered in both surnames?

As you are using SP, suggest you read the section "About our records" and then "record types" and "births" and "RCEs" which may help towards an explanation.

Perhaps there might be a court record of a proved paternity?

He was registered as More because that was his mother's surname.

I guess the clerk/registrar/whoever presumably knew Mr More wasn't his father, so also put in his mother's maiden name, and listed him as illegitimate.

He's also registered as Fleming. (1905, Loudoun, Ayrshire)

Morag,
I know that you posted a clip of the birth cert and I can see that an error was corrected in Column1 to add the alternative surname ( maiden name of mother)

If there was a proven paternity case, there would also be a stamp on the left hand edge to indicate that an RCE was issued.

An illegitimate child is entitled to have the same name as his mother.
She was using More. He is entitled to the same name but his mother's maiden name has been added as an alternative.
There does not appear to be an RCE issued because the child would then be entitled to use his father's surname, and that too would be added to the certificate, which would ultimitely show 3 last names. (More, Fleming and the proven father's last name)

Just to add a little. I have a lady in my tree to had several illegitimate children, 4 of them to the same father. The first two have an RCE on the birth registration proving paternity but the father's name was not then recorded on the birth registration. The mother must have got fed up going to court so the next two she just added the father's name as a middle name. Another example I have is similar to the case here. I spent ages trying to find the son of my 3 x Great grandmother who was the informant of her death registration. As he had her maiden surname, I had assumed he was born before she married. It turned out he was born a couple of years after she was widowed but his birth was registered in her maiden surname and it stated on the birth certificate that her late husband wasn't the father of the child.

Another example I have is of an illegitimate child whose birth was registered in the name of the mother. The parents married three years later and had more children. The illegitimate child's birth was re-registered over twenty years later naming both parents.

Hi Morag,

The cause of death was Uraemia, easily treated nowadays but many years ago the outcome was different.

My grandfather died from the same condition in 1930