| Identifying Unknown Parents in Scottish Records |
| Non-paternal events, or children born outside of wedlock can create substantial barriers to extending your family tree. However, if this birth occurred in Scotland after the introduction of Statutory (Civil) Registration in January 1855, it may be possible to identify the father. Up until 1919 birth records clearly indicate that a child was born to unmarried parents. Single mothers were not compelled to name the father and married women must have been mindful of the fact there were penalties for falsifying entries. However, the father of an illegitimate child could be included on the registration form if he and the mother appeared together to register the birth. And this is what happened in the registration record for my great-grandfather, David Hood. In the entry he is given his father’s surname and both parents are listed. Sometimes, women pursued what we would call paternity cases in the Scottish Sheriff’s Court. If a mother won her case, the Statutory Registration of Birth was amended in the Register of Corrected Entries and the father identified. You’ll find notice of this in the left hand side of the original Statutory Registration record. However, not all records were amended by the Sheriff’s Court as required, so it is worth looking at the case decree indexes available at Findmypast. What if the father is not named anywhere? There are several steps you can take. - Search the Statutory Registrations (also available at ScotlandsPeople) for all instances of the mother and the child, and be sure to examine all the witnesses and informants to build a picture of the mother’s network.
- Search the Scottish Census (available at ScotlandsPeople; indexes for the 1841-1901 census are available at Ancestry) for the mother. You will want to note who is in her household and who were neighbors were.
- Do a DNA test. Since so many people left Scotland, you are likely to find connections no matter where you test. My mother, whose father emigrated from Scotland in 1923, has over 11,000 matches on her paternal side at Ancestry, and many of these are descendants of her ancestors siblings. To try and sort out who might be connected to your illegitimate ancestor’s father, place your DNA matches into genetic groups.
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