Recording of illegitimate births and baptisms
OPRs
The baptism of an illegitimate child may not have been recorded at all in the OPRs. However, there may be some reference to the birth in the minutes of the Kirk Session of the parish in which the birth took place. These are held in the National Archives of Scotland under the CH2 repertory. Some Kirk Session records can be found on the microfilms of OPRs.
The Kirk Session was composed of the minister and elders of the parish church, and it dealt with, amongst other things, the moral behaviour of the parishioners. Adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, slanderers and Sabbath breakers were all brought before the Kirk Session to answer for their behaviour and to do penance for their crimes. In the case of an illegitimate birth, the father’s name might be recorded along with the penance committed by both parents, for example, having to make a public confession and profess their repentance before the congregation, being forbidden to take communion for a set period of time, having to pay a fine to Poor Relief. In cases where the father was unknown, the mother was often put under considerable moral pressure to name him and sometimes an alleged father would dispute the mother’s allegations. The drama would be played out through the Kirk Session minutes. Sometimes the mother would resist all attempts to discover the father’s name and the child would be recorded under the mother’s name, as this extract from Livingston OPR for 1807 illustrates:
Born to Hellen Baxter in the Village of Livingston on 28 Decr 1805 and Baptized on the 26th Feby. 1807 named Helen Baxter
‘N.B. This Child at the time of its Baptism could not find a Father. Her Mother gave it to a Packman which she said came up to her on the road from Edinr. Though the Father was suspected to be nearer the doors. But a confession from the time it was born to this day Could not be extorted from the Mother’
(OPR 669/1 Fr 358)
If the baptism of an illegitimate child did take place, after suitable penance by parent or parents, you may find that the child was registered under:
- the mother’s maiden name and retained that name into adulthood.
- the mother's maiden name, then was legitimised by the parents' subsequent marriage and therefore carried the father's surname into adulthood.
- the father’s name if he acknowledged paternity.
The original record may indicate that the child was illegitimate by the use of words like “natural”, “baseborn”, and “reputed”. In addition, or alternatively, the father or mother may be described as “adulterer” or “fornicator/fornicatrix”.
Statutory Records
In Scotland, an illegitimate child’s birth was usually indexed under the mother’s maiden surname. However, the mother’s surname may not have been the name that the child was known by in later life:
- If the parents were not married when the child was born, the father’s name could still be entered in the register provided he admitted paternity; that is, he went with the mother to register the child and they signed the register together. The child’s birth would then be indexed under both the father’s and the mother’s surnames. However, in practice, some were registered only under the father’s surname, and known by that name.
- If the parents subsequently married, then the child was legitimised under Scots law (provided the parents would have been free to marry at the time of the birth). There may be an entry in the Register of Corrected Entries recording the legitimisation of the child’s birth and the birth would then be indexed under the father’s name retrospectively. See SR Births for more information on RCEs.
- If the mother subsequently married another man, the child might have been known by the stepfather’s surname in later records. Since there were no legal adoption procedures before the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act 1930, the child might assume the stepfather’s surname without any change being made to the birth record.
If you find the birth entry for an illegitimate child, with no father’s name recorded, check the left hand column for any indication that there has been an entry in the Register of Corrected Entries relating to the paternity of the child.
The statutory birth entry of an illegitimate child would have “illegitimate” entered in column one under the name and surname. Use of the term was discontinued from 1919, and extracts from earlier records were henceforth issued as typed extracts, omitting the word “illegitimate”. Images on this site are as per the originals.
Where a child was born to a married woman and the father was not her husband, this may on a few occasions also be indicated in column one.
Location of an illegitimate birth or baptism
Consider the possibility that an illegitimate child may have been born in a different location to younger children in the family. A young unmarried mother may have been sent away from home for the confinement. It was also common practice, to conceal illegitimacy, for the child to be brought up by the grandparents as the parents.
Census
You may find that there is an indication of illegitimacy in the census, if, for example, a child’s name is recorded at the end of the entry, or is found to be out of the age-order of the other children in the household.