Q My husband’s great great grandmother’s third child was born shortly after her husband’s death in 1883. Was it legal at this time to name a deceased father on a birth certificate?
Also my great grandmother, Mary Moss (born 1871), has no father named on her birth entry. Her mother married two months later. In 1871, could a father be named on a birth certificate when the mother was unmarried and could it be added later?
A There is a common-law presumption of paternity that regards the husband of a married woman to be the father of her child. This is often, wrongly, said to mean that any child born to a married woman can automatically be registered with him as the father, but this isn’t the case. What it does allow is for a married woman to name her husband as the father of her child without him being present to confirm that fact – but if she does so knowing it to be false (or impossible), then she is committing an offence. If a woman’s husband died while she was pregnant, then the child would not be regarded as illegitimate and it was normal to name him as the father. He may be noted as “deceased”, but not in every case.
The original 1837 legislation didn’t give specific instructions for the registration of illegitimate children, so an unmarried father could be named on the word of the mother alone. Most registrars seem to have discouraged this, but there are some examples in the registers. Usually the father’s details would be left blank.
After 1874, an unmarried father would have to be present with the mother to sign the register as a “joint informant” to be recorded as the father, something that still applies today.
It was possible to make an application to the registrar general to re-register a birth to add an unmarried father to such an entry, but this was rarely done before the mid-20th century.