Von: carlah@earthlink.net (Carla)
  Datum: 27.10.98, 18:33:32
Betreff: Re: Illegitimate births

Elizwil827@aol.com wrote:

> A fellow researcher told me not too long ago, that for a period in Germany--late
> 1800s, early 1900s, it was not uncommon for there to be illegitimate births.
> Apparently, a couple needed to prove that they were financially stable before a
> marriage was allowed.  Since this could take awhile, there were many
> illegitimate births.  In my grandmother's case, she stayed where she was, as did
> her family--her younger children still reside in the town even though the mother
> later married someone else.  The father's name
> was in the church records
>
> Betty Wilson

Dear Betty & Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends,

Betty's comments above are correct, although the statements could be expanded.
Illegitimate births were not *uncommon in general* during the time of our
ancestors in Germany, and in other parts of Europe.  (It has been estimated by
some scholars that between 7% and 30% of births in the 17th to mid-19th centuries
alone were to unwed parents.)  The main reason, as Betty mentions, was primarily
economic in nature, rather than a seeming moral lapse on the part of those
involved---although illegitimacy surely occurred for less practical reasons, too.
:-)

Some people had one or more illegitimate children together and never married;
others produced the child or children and married later---sometimes many years
later.  Some single mothers in the rare economic position to do so raised the
children themselves; others returned with their children to their own family
homes, and the children became a normal part of the extended family group.  It was
also unfortunately commonplace that children born to unmarried parents often died
in infancy---but then, infant mortality was very high in those days for all
children.

It is important for the researcher to keep in mind that the attitude of others
towards persons who produced illegitimate children in those times was not
necessarily as harsh and unaccepting as one might expect.  Though illegitimacy was
not intentionally encouraged, instances of illegitimate births were so numerous
and commonplace that many people accepted the situation as a matter of course.
Degrees of attention and the nature of response to the situation varied, even on
the part of the churches.  (Some clergy took pains to emphasize a child's
illegitimate status in the church registers at the time of baptism---such as
inscribing the entry upside down, etc.---while others recorded illegitimate births
nearly identically with all other births, even noting the name of the child's
father, which was often omitted otherwise.)

Remember that attitudes toward the same situation in separate parts of the world
(such as between Europe and the United States) were often very different from one
another.  Illegitimacy was not *universally* viewed as a moral outrage
everywhere.  It is a fairly rare thing for a person doing family research in
Europe involving the last few centuries to NOT find at least one instance (and
usually more) of illegitimacy in one's family tree.  Be prepared for a possible
surprise! :-)

Wishing you the best in your continuing research,
Carla HELLER
Los Angeles