Illegitimacy in the United States

Illegitimate Children
An illegitimate child is when the mother and father were not married at the time of the child’s birth. Other names for illegitimate children are natural born, bastard, and base-born. The less common words used were spurious, imputed, reputed, and misbegotten.

An illegitimate child could be very well hidden, as the family did not want the public to know that the children was illegitimate. An illegitimate child often used the mother’s surname and was frequently prohibited from inheriting property.

How to Recognize an Illegitimate Child
Certain scenarios will be easier to spot than others. The idea of illegitimacy usually comes from oral histories. It is a good reason to speculate and research further if a story is passed down that an ancestor was either adopted or illegitimate.

An illegitimate child can be recognized in birth records and when they seem out of place in the census records.

An example of possible illegitimacy is when there’s a household in the census with all sons aged 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 13, and 2. This should cause a red flag, especially if the mother is beyond child-bearing age and there were no daughters that might be the potential mother.

In the 1850 census, Sally Blair would have been over the age of 40 to have Roswell Blair in 1844. There is also a nine-year age gap between Mildred and Roswell in this census to signal that Roswell may be illegitimate if his mother was not one of the other females in the household.



In the 1860 census, Roswell is listed as Roswell Elliott instead of Roswell Blair. It’s possible that someone could quickly assume that Elliott was Roswell’s middle name and he would still have the surname of Blair. But as the census is analyzed carefully, there is no ‘ditto’ marks for Roswell concerning his last name. Sallie, Parker, Cynthia, and Mildred all received ‘ditto’ marks for their last name. It is important to analyze relationships when no relationships to head of household were given.



Through additional research, Roswell was indeed an illegitimate child, and Nathan Blair took Roswell Elliott in when he was young.

Birth and Death Records
Depending on the time period and where your ancestor was born in the United States, the birth record would list who the mother was. It is also possible that it would include the word “illegitimate” alongside the birth information. It is more likely that the father’s name would not be included in the birth record if the child was illegitimate.

Death records are similar to birth records, as it is not likely that both parent’s names would be listed. They would leave the father’s field blank or list “unknown”. This signals that the child was possibly illegitimate. It’s not expected that the informant would know who the father was if the child was illegitimate.

Church Records
Although church records are not always available, church records are another good indicator to find out more information on whether your ancestor is illegitimate if government records were not created yet. Check what records are available for the location you’re searching. Certain phrases could be found in christening records that reveal their illegitimacy.

Examples: “Baptized William Smith, son of Sara Smith and the reputed son of William Brown.”

This means that William Brown admits the child is his (or it has been proved to be his.)

“Baptized William Smith, son of Sarah Smith and the imputed son of William Brown.”

This means that William Brown does not accept the child as his.

Just like vital records, the church records may not list the father’s name, which would indicate illegitimacy. Another clue that a child is illegitimate is if the child has the mother’s maiden name given in the record instead of the father’s surname.

Quaker records specifically can be very forthcoming about an illegitimate child. This is because the person will be disowned and no longer part of the Quaker’s religion if they have an illegitimate child. The women’s monthly minutes are a good place to find these records if you know your ancestor was a Quaker. Birth records were not as consistent as Quaker monthly minutes, but both places should be searched.