No name of father on the birth certificate: piecing together the facts
QAbigail (my grandmother) grew up believing that James Woodcock was her father. In later life she needed to supply a birth certificate to an organisation, and as she did not have one she had to send away for it. She was horrified when she received the certificate to see no name of a father. She had always thought that James Woodcock was her father.
My questions are:
• Was Ellen Woodcock’s maiden name Brown?
• If Ellen Brown and Ellen Woodcock were the same person, why was she in the Union Workhouse, Milton, giving birth to Abigail when she was a married woman with two boys?
• Why was James Woodcock and his younger son in a boarding house five years later in 1901 in Milton? Was this just coincidence and why was James stating he was a widower when according to the 1911 Census he was married in 1889? (The two places noted for James Woodcock’s birth are close to each other).
• In the 1911 Census James states that he and Ellen have had a total of four children. Was Abigail the third child?
Lydia Pullen
AMy guess is that Ellen Brown and James Woodcock never formally married. Perhaps James’s wife was still alive, which precluded his marriage. It is worth seeing whether James had previously been married and when his wife died. He has a son – William – which suggests that there previously had been a relationship.
In the late 19th century divorce was very expensive and could only be afforded by the upper and middle classes. As a result, it was not unusual for couples, who had previously been married to other partners, to cohabit. To avoid comments by the neighbours the woman would take the man’s surname. Almost always this ruse was successful. Afterall if the couple lived respectably together who would know or, indeed, care. Bigamy was of course a crime, but it is relatively rare for couples to be prosecuted.
During the First World War, social workers and moral campaigners were shocked about the tens of thousands of cohabiting women – known to the authorities as ‘unmarried wives’ – who came forward to claim family allowances when their partners joined the forces. SF