Who’s the Daddy? Snippet 3: Belated Marriage Certificates

Marriage Certificate – Wellcome Collection, in the public domain.

Sometimes, the mother of an illegitimate child went on to marry its father soon after the birth. This may have occurred because of pressure being applied by the local Church authorities. Therefore, even if no father is recorded on the birth certificate or parish baptism register, it’s always worth looking in the marriage indexes for the months and years immediately after the birth of a child to see if the mother did in fact marry at around this time.