If you can’t find a marriage for an ancestor who had one or more children, don’t assume that because they had children that they “had to have been married.” While it was not the norm, having children without being married certainly happened. Many church records in denominations that practiced infant baptism will make special note of the situation and may (or may not) name the purported father.
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3 Responses
That is certainly a point I have been cosidering about my husband’s grandfather on his dad’s side.
In my family the Catholic priest in one case and the Lutheran minister in another, made it very clear in the church record by using the word illegitimate in the record book. The Catholic record gives the father’s name, the Lutheran record does not, but maybe it wasn’t known to the minister.
In some records the entry will also be sideways.