Thanks Anke,
I'd forgotten about proving the woman could bear a male child - always a
good thing when there were no pensions. I think the bondage system ended
slightly later in Britain. My branch of the family were the poor relations,
all seem to be of peasant stock :-)) Although I only saw 2 children on the
1852 census, I know there were 3 illegitimate sons and one illegitimate
daughter before my gt.gt. grandparents married in 1854 and a few months
afterwards my gt. grandfather was born. I am presuming his mother was a
farm worker. His father Heinrich was "a servant at Immenrode" before he
married and moved away from the area. Heinrich was illegitimate - his
father Franz was a married man with several daughters and was a miller at
Liebenburg.
Thanks again,
Rena
Rena,
I think it was our president Lincoln who said something to the effect that
"God must really love the common man 'cause he sure made a lot of them".
Don Roddy
(Descended from many generations of "Ag Laborers" and "Heuerleuten")
----- Message from rena@rena24.fsnet.co.uk ---------
In Germany, the son usually did not marry until his father was ready to turn over the family farm and home -- or business and home -- to him, no matter how many children he and his partner had at that point.
The engagement was the big festive celebration, blessed at the church, a big family reception for everyone in the village, and everyone gave the couple gifts at that time. The actual wedding itself was often much later and very low key, more like a real estate closing.
My German second great-grandparents had two daughters when they married. Their children's German baptismal records are not marked illegitimate in any way.
They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in the US in 1899 -- but the record in Germany states they were married in 1851, just before leaving for the US with a newborn and an 18-months-old baby.
So I think maybe if the couple had the engagement blessing and were acknowledged as a couple living together in the community and the father of the child was accepting his responsibility for the child and acknowledging paternity and inheritance rights, and baptizing the child, then there was no problem, it was simply the custom.
If the woman had no chance to marry the child's father -- because he was unnamed or already married -- perhaps it was only then that the horrible words were added.
The word "Illegitimate" was used, originally, to indicate who could legally inherit property and titles at a time when the legal husband acquired all of his wife's money and property (often a great deal more than his own) and absolute rule over her life .... and it made certain, for her, that her own children benefited from her sacrifice and her contributions to the marriage and family .... despite her husband's possibly-errant behavior.
Maureen