Illogical Dates, Missing Parents, Bastardy Bonds_ What to Do If Your Ancestors Were Born Out of Wedlock

Illogical Dates, Missing Parents, Bastardy Bonds: What to Do If Your Ancestors Were Born Out of Wedlock

By Patricia Hartley

When you are new to family history research, it’s easy to imagine that every ancestor will fit neatly into a perfect family group: father, mother and children. They’ll live together in one household in the census, share the same last name, and first births will occur at least nine months after a marriage.

It doesn’t take long to discover, though, that our ancestors’ lives were as complicated as ours are today. They divorced, lived together without marrying, cheated on their spouses, and had children before marriage (or even while they were married to someone else). 

Sometimes you stumble upon these mysterious children or illogical dates by accident, and then work to figure out how this person came about. Other times, you suspect a child was born outside your expected typical family group and focus your research on proving their legitimacy or “illegitimacy.”

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These confusions can mean that fathers, and sometimes mothers, may not be who we thought they were. And, despite the fact that families come in many shapes and sizes, for family historians it is so important to fully understand family relationships so that we can correctly place someone in our family tree. 

Also read: Who Counts as Family in a Family Tree

Clues to to Help You Discover if Your Ancestor Was Born Out of Wedlock, and What to Do Next

So how do you know when an ancestor was born out of wedlock? As you’ll see, some clues are more straightforward than others. 

Illegitimate Terminology

There are certain terms that have been used throughout the centuries to refer to children born out of wedlock, and finding one of these is an easy way to determine someone’s birth status. Some of those terms are no longer used, and many are considered offensive today. However, as with any other aspect of social history, we have to understand that they were a product of the time and understand the context in which they were coined.

Some keywords to watch for in historical records include:

  • Illegitimate
  • Bastard
  • Base-born
  • Reputed (the father accepts the child as his, or the child has been proven to be his)
  • Imputed (the father denies the child is his)
  • Misbegotten
  • Natural
  • Ignotis (Latin for “unknown”)

Other countries used different terms, sometimes assigning the child a surname that in their language meant “unknown,” “cast out,” or “foundling.”

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Family Lore

You may have heard whispers of illegitimacy at reunions or when older family members are asked about a certain ancestor. In many families, the illegitimacy of a child was common knowledge among cousins, even if the child was never told. Sometimes this information was passed down among generations whenever that family member was mentioned. Look for clues in your family lore or in old personal documents. 

“Unknown Father” on Vital or Church Records

This one can be tricky, because a father’s (and mother’s, for that matter) name is often left off of a death certificate simply because the informant doesn’t know or remember the information.

Birth certificates, however, are a different story. Official, or certified, birth records were required in every jurisdiction across the United States by the early 20th century, and many large cities kept birth registers for years before that. In most cases, the mother or a close family member provides the information that is listed on a birth certificate or birth record. The same is true for church baptism or christening records.

Because these events occurred so soon after a child’s birth, an “unknown” father in the record often points to a child born out of wedlock.

Illogical Ages or Names

Sure, our ancestors had very large families, which meant that fathers and mothers were having children well into their older years. But when you see a census record with a mother who is 48, with children aged 29 to 12, followed by a child of the same surname but age 2, it could indicate a child who belongs to the father, but not the mother.

Of course, there are other explanations for this, such as the child being a grandchild or someone who was adopted and given the family surname, but it’s worth exploring further. In the same vein, if you see a record listing a child with the maiden name of the mother, it could be a case of illegitimacy.

Another “out of wedlock” scenario is when a child’s birthdate occurs less than nine months after a couple’s marriage. I’m still trying to figure out the mystery of my own grandmother’s first child. My grandparents were married on April 5, and their first child was born on May 17 of the same year. If this was a shotgun wedding, they waited until the last minute! So is it possible the child belonged to another father and my grandfather valiantly stepped in to marry a girl who was “in trouble?”

The child died when he was only two years old, so few records exist, and DNA isn’t an option. The couple went on to have seven more children, five of whom lived to adulthood. But the story about that first little boy is still a conundrum.

Probate, Wills, and Orphans Court Records

Some men would mention their illegitimate child(ren) in their will to indicate their wishes to include or exclude the children from the division of assets. Probate records may also mention these children even if they aren’t in the will if those children’s existence was made known after the father’s death. 

Bastardy Bonds

The most obvious and helpful court records pertaining to illegitimacy are bastardy bonds, which may turn up in your research. These documents named the father of an illegitimate child as well as the mother who claimed his paternity.

They usually demanded that the father take responsibility for the financial support of the child, because if the mother couldn’t adequately support the child, he or she would most likely become a burden to the government. A bastardy bond is more than a clue; it’s actually a solid lead to the identity of an unknown father and confirmation that a child was born out of wedlock.

Bastardy Bond from Carter County, TN

Conflicting DNA

One of the inadvertent effects of widespread genealogical DNA testing has been the discovery of previously-unknown family members. It’s nearly inevitable to connect with someone in your DNA match network only to find they are the illegitimate offspring or a descendant of an out of wedlock union of a distant cousin, great-great-uncle, or even a grandparent.

I’ve personally encountered this scenario four separate times with my own family’s DNA matches! In most of these cases, the person reached out to me to ask for help figuring out how we were related, as they knew they or their ancestor were illegitimate.

What to Do if You Do Find an Out of Wedlock Birth and Can’t Find the Father (or Mother)

When you come across any of these clues to illegitimacy in your genealogy research, they definitely pique your interest. On their own, though, they don’t tell you much, and it’s sometimes difficult to prove an out of wedlock situation on the merits of one blank space on a document.

It’s important that you continue to gather as many documents or family accounts to first, prove — or disprove — illegitimacy, and second, find the true identities of the child’s parents. Here are a few places to start:

Ask Your Family Members

You probably started your genealogy journey by interviewing the oldest members of your family, but at the time, you may not have known to ask about children born out of wedlock. This can be a touchy subject, so approach it with caution.

You may ask, for instance, “Have you heard any stories about Great Uncle Joe’s father?” rather than blurting out, “Was Great Uncle Joe illegitimate?” If one family member is reluctant to talk about this ancestor, try asking another person who might be interested in sharing with you.

Check the Papers

Since the goal of bastardy bonds was to collect money from the father for support of the child, these payments were often recorded in the local newspaper. The account below was printed in the York, South Carolina Yorkville Enquirer in 1856:

Newspaper notice of NC Bastardy Bond Payments

If you’re not sure where to start, find the local newspapers where your ancestor was born and limit your search to the first five or so years of the child’s life. Use search terms such as “bastardy,” “base born,” or “reputed” and the child’s last name to narrow your results. Your search may also yield notices of court proceedings involving paternity, like these from 1870 Massachusetts and 1889 Pennsylvania, respectively:

Massachusetts newspaper notice of bastardy hearing

Pennsylvania Newspaper notice of bastardy hearing

Look for Actual Bastardy Bonds

Not every state kept records of bastardy bonds and even fewer of these have been published in online databases. However, if you suspect your ancestor may be illegitimate, it may be worth a call to his or her birth county to see if bastardy bond records are available, and if so, plan an onsite visit or request they mail you a copy (if they offer look ups for a small fee). These types of records may also be filed under “miscellaneous,” “loose records,” “orphans,” or even “guardianship” records.

Compare Original and Amended or Delayed Birth Certificates

Often, a mother would leave a father’s name blank on a birth certificate and later amend the certificate to include a name — or vice versa, as they may name the father on the original and remove his name in an amended version.

If an amended birth certificate was issued, it should accompany the original when ordered from your particular state or county. A delayed birth certificate, which became more common after 1937 when obtaining a Social Security number required proof of birth, can hold quite a bit of information as several unique records or testimonies were required to prove what the person had provided. 

Look for Suspected Fathers

Sometimes — well, often times — genealogy requires trial and error research. You might have to spend some time traveling one path, only to find out it’s a dead end and you have to return to your starting point. Trying to identify an unknown father or mother can require this type of journey.

Depending on the era, you might check the census records of your ancestor’s mother, looking for neighbors who might have been the right age or older when the mother became pregnant. Maybe you notice one man’s name appearing repeatedly in other documents where your ancestor is mentioned. Perhaps the mother was employed by a wealthy (possibly married) man or worked with someone closely. 

These tips are also good when looking for missing mothers as it was not unheard of for a wife to “adopt” or raise her husband’s illegitimate child, or employ that child in a home or business – meaning the biological mother may not be listed in records with the child.

Once you identify a “suspect,” spend some time studying that person’s life and records, especially wills and probate documents, land transfers, and even family stories other researchers might post online. If possible, use DNA results to eliminate non-contenders, as well.

Double- or Triple-check Records in Your Collection

No matter how long you’ve had the 1860 U.S. Federal census record in your collection for the ancestor in question, it’s worth reviewing it and his or her other records again for clues.

Perhaps someone slipped up and listed the child with the father’s surname instead of the stepfather’s or mother’s, and you always assumed it was just an enumeration error. Maybe there’s a note written in the margin of an old newspaper clipping that you’ve overlooked. Once you have the context of the person’s potential illegitimacy, you’ll view all of these records with new eyes.

Also read: Why You Should Stop Your Research and Reexamine Every Single Genealogy Record You Have & 5 Uncommon Places to Find Your Ancestors’ Missing Parents

For nearly 30 years Patricia Hartley has researched and written about ancestry. She has a B.S. in Professional Writing and English and an M.A. in English from the University of North Alabama and a M.A. in Public Relations/Mass Communications from Kent State University.

18 thoughts on “Illogical Dates, Missing Parents, Bastardy Bonds: What to Do If Your Ancestors Were Born Out of Wedlock”

  1. The year before my father passed he told me his mother was a full fledged squaw out of South Dakota. He remembered nothing else. The picture I have looks just like an Indian statue I saw. But after visiting a reservation there, they told me there is no way to get the information. She has 3 different birth years and the birth certificate saws she was born 3 years after the census

  2. My question is this. When doing research, a baby was born out of wedlock. On the baby’s birth certificate would it show that the baby was born a Bastard? I would love to know what the answer is. Does any one know the answer?

  3. My father died at the age of 88 in 2014, he was put in an orphanage by his mother and adopted at age 4 in Portland or So Portland Maine but was born in Newton Lower Falls Mass. I was able to get the sealed bit certificate after he passed, he never saw them himself., It has his mother’s name but not the father and also has the name she named my dad but was changed when adopted. Even if I can’t find the fathers information i would love to at least find hers but always dead-end.
    Thank you for any help.

  4. Rosemary Bruce

    I don’t have a comment but a question. My mother’s birth certificate indicates her mother as “Miss”. Does this mean my grandparents were not married at her birth? This was 1927.

  5. If a woman has a child by a man other than her husband, should the child be shown in the tree of the husband, or in the tree of “the other man”, or both?

  6. Ah yes, Scotland. I searched for years for a marriage certificate for my 4th great-grandparents then finally read in his 1844 will that they’d never married. He was called “Laird,” and they had seven respectable children including a minister, a teacher, a hotel owner and a coach proprietor in Glasgow. They just didn’t bother to officially marry. Kind of reminded me of the sixties in America.

  7. My great grandfather was born before his parents wedding but was baptized the same day as the wedding. He has 2 baptismal records – one with his mother’s surname and one with his father’s surname as his surname. This was in 1840 in Northumberland, England.

  8. Folk wisdom: The first child can come at any time; the rest take nine months. “Born out of wedlock” and even “bastard” (defined by Merriam-Webster as “a child born to parents who are not married to each other”) imply that the parents weren’t married before the child was born, but there are also legal avenues for establishing legitimacy that can even make an illegitimate child legitimate by a timely evidentiary proceeding (Scotland provides many examples of this, especially in the case of “declared” marriages, which are more common than even I imagined and in which cases the parents simply started living together because they were “unchurched” or believed, for one reason or another, a declaration of marriage by an ecclesiastical or civil government to be coercive or irrelevant to them); in any case, this is more commonly the case among people living on the frontiers or margins of society, whatever they believed. Settled genealogy, rather than evidentiary genealogy, is probably the optimal solution (a determination that’s at least a decade away), but there’s another method: comparison of the collateral and ancillary mentions of relationships, and even negative evidence from these sources (from otherwise evidentiary contacts with the ecclesiastical or civil authorities and mentions in the records of collateral lines of families, or reports of the same). This is certainly not the easy stuff!

  9. Relative found out late in life that they were adopted. Began researching but died before identifying family/parents of origin. Born in the early 1920’s. No birth certificate available. DNA links to three families in the same geographic area. Unfortunately, members of the aforementioned families have not responded to inquiries. (We understand, respect their decisions and right to privacy.) Remaining adoptive family member has no information. Would any of the above suggestions be of help. Also, are there steps/actions that could help determine the parents of origin? Thank you.

  10. Robert William Kinnie Jr

    My own case, my mother and father got married on September 29, 1951 and I was born on March 16, 1952. By my count that’s six months.

  11. ‘Born in a cabbage patch’ is one term used (circa 1850) by my maternal lowland Scottish gt grandfather in a letter to his ‘sister’ to indicate illegitimacy or foundling status. While the large family came from the same Dumfriesshire farm address, all older and younger siblings have had births confirmed in the local church register.

  12. My thought is that the husband was not the father, hence the divorce. So, the child would be “born outside of wedlock” as the parents were not married.

  13. Does anyone know: if two people are married and conceive a child, but divorce before the child is born, is it considered “born out of wedlock”? Someone told their granddaughter that their first son was born out of wedlock, but everything I’ve managed to find suggests that the parents WERE married 2-3 years before his birth. However, he was born in 1939 and she shows up living with her parents and child on the 1940 Census, and is listed as divorced. So born after the divorce is the only explanation I can find for why she would say that. Anyone know?

  14. Cecelia M Hoerner

    Help, I’m stuck. I have met bio-dad, and am embraced by his wife and my half siblings. Half cousins are working on family tree, and have sent requests for info contributions. How can myself, my husband & children be listed on the tree, under bio-dad, but not bio-dad & his wife and half siblings? No one here wants to see mention of bio-mom, I”m sure. Suggestions?

  15. Jessica O'Brien

    My great great grandfather was adopted. I found him listed in an orphanage in the 1880 census, marked as illegitimate. He was already a year old then. I scoured the census records in the area (Toledo, OH) and found a 19 yr domestic servant with the same last name as my g-g-grandfather. I believe I found a listing for her in the 1870 census, but it was in Mass, so I can’t be sure it’s the same family. The fragmentation of the 1890 census hinders my chances at finding her after she left domestic service.

  16. I have an ancestor born out of wedlock in 1855. He had his mother’s surname. I cannot find either one of them in 1860 or 1870 census. The mother was a child living with her parents in 1850. They both show up in 1880. I have determined the biological father thru dna. He came from a reputable family, but I don’t see that he was involved. He married in 1857 and lived a separate life. I don’t know where else to search for where mother and child were.

  17. Would you be interested in reviewing on your site our publication, Sustainable Genealogy, by Richard Hite. Please let me know if you would like to see a copy of the book.

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  18. If a census records says “adopted” for a person but you can not find this person ever mentioned again or other documents, would this indicate a mother’s child from another man?

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