Illigetimate births.....

[Alice Bradford]

When I was searching Scottish OPRs I don't remember of seeing any illigetimate births. Are those listed somewheres else? I also tried doing a search and apparently I don't know how to do it because nothing came up concerning illigetimate births? I'm thinking the reason I can't find the birth record of 3 female ancestors who are the oldest in their families could be because they were illigetimate. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Alice

[AndrewP]

Hi Alice,

Be assured there are as many illegitimate births in the OPRs as in the statutory birth certificates. However the wording is different. You will occasionally see the word illegitimate. More usually, the illegitimate child is referred to as natural son or daughter of... (rather than lawful son or daughter of ... = legitimate). There are other more poetical descriptions as the church showed its diapproval of such like - begotten in fornication, by antenuptual fornication, or very occasionally bastard.

All the best,

AndrewP

[SarahND]

Hi Alice,

I also tried doing a search and apparently I don't know how to do it because nothing came up concerning illigetimate births?

Do you mean you were searching this forum, or perhaps the internet for the phrase "illegitimate birth"? If so, the problem is spelling The 'i' and the 'e' are reversed... The search engine can't guess, unfortunately, which is why we humans are still better at things like that than computers are! Forgive a retired teacher for noticing Up until recently I was paid for it!
All the best,
Sarah

[Alice Bradford]

Thanks to Sarah for correcting my spelling. I'll try the forum again. Thanks to Andrew for enlightening me. I do remember of seeing "natural" birth, but didn't know the true meaning of it.
Thanks for teaching me a few things today.
Alice