Liverpool Affiliation Registers, 1924-1964

[Blue70]

Liverpool Affiliation Registers, 1924-1964 [347 MAG 3]

That's the more polite title for these registers! An uncle was born illegitimate in the 1930s and we had more or less given up hope of finding out the name of his father. Recently I sent a message to the Record Office and asked what records they had that might help. They told me they have Liverpool court registers with basic details of cases, where mothers went to court for the maintenance of illegitimate children, for the years 1924 to 1964. I may have read about these records in the past and forgotten about them but I was really surprised they had records I could view. I arranged a trip to the Central Library and not long into the 1934 register I found the entry I was looking for giving both the mother's name and the name of the putative father. Everyone in the family is gobsmacked that we have a name for this person at last. It's been daft really all these years wondering when the answer was waiting for us in a register in the Central Library. Unfortunately for other years they say, "There are no earlier or similar registers."

http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/calmvie ... MAG&pos=21


Blue

[MaryA]

Absolutely made up for you to get that result!

It's always worth trying the Lancashire Records Office as they do have some there for Lancashire area, earlier dates too, but don't know if they cover Liverpool.

[Blue70]

The father of the child appears to have already been married. I found a likely marriage for him and births of children outside Liverpool apart from one, the third of seven was born in the Abercromby Sub District of Liverpool. His parents were from the county of the marriage and most of these births although he himself was born and grew up in Liverpool. We were told this man was a seaman by an elderly relation before she died so he was probably a regular visitor to Liverpool and probably passed himself off as a single man some of the time. The 1939 Register is intriguing, he is not on it perhaps away at sea and his wife's surname was later changed but I can't find a second marriage for her. Perhaps they separated but didn't divorce and she changed her surname to that of her new partner.


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[MaryA]

Love those sorts of mysteries, you will come across an answer one day.

[Blue70]

I've got his death certificate now and the informant is a son I was unaware of. It looks like this son was born to another woman he lived with after he separated from his wife. This surname combo in the indexes gives just one birth, the informant and there's no marriage for them suggesting separation with no divorce as I expected from his wife's entry on the 1939 Register and the absence of a second marriage for her.


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[MaryA]

The more you find the more questions are raised!

[Blue70]

I think I might have a name for the third woman in his life. There's a single woman with the same surname as the third woman on the 1939 Register living in the same road that our man dies in decades later. So far I have for this man six legitimate children with his wife, one that his wife might have had with another partner, one illegitimate with my Nan and one illegitimate with the third woman although as both surnames are included they have either pretended to be married or both attended the registration.


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[MaryA]

Oh what a tangled web they weave

[Blue70]

I asked Lancashire Archives about another illegitimate birth I have, one from Walton Workhouse in 1881:-

"Unfortunately I don't think that we hold any information likely to help with your search. Walton was part of the Liverpool petty sessions division, so any surviving registers should be held at Liverpool Archives. Up to 1894 it was part of the Lancashire County Quarter Sessions court, so there is a small chance than an affiliation order could have survived within our collections. However these records, which are within our series of petitions, are fully name indexed and I have not been able to find anything under the names Ann or Mary Atherton.

I'm sorry that we are unable to help further with your search. Presumably you have already considered the records relating to Walton workhouse itself? While there are no surviving records from the workhouse in 1881 there are guardian's minute books for the West Derby poor law union. The content recorded in these can vary enormously between each union but we have certainly seen instances within our own collections where individual cases are discussed. It may be worth going back to Liverpool archives to make further enquiries about this collection specifically."

I may revisit this one at some point to see if the minute books have anything. The current illegitimate birth research is kind of putting me off doing any more of this kind of research though. It's been difficult trying to put all the pieces together. I can't buy all the certificates I would like to buy to show the full the picture as the families are not closely related to mine but out of curiosity and a need to get the basics right I've bought a minimum number of certificates. I'll have the basic facts but will wonder what else I might be missing from these people's lives.


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[MaryA]

I know just how you feel, often a sideline gets me hooked and I need to know more, luckily I've often managed quite a bit from the marriages and other records that are available on microfilm and a little bit of time has helped.

I know your time is limited but if you were able to come to the library on a Tuesday morning any time, let me know and I could perhaps browse through those Minute Books with you, it would be a bit of a learning curve for me too.

[Blue70]

I got the marriage certificate in today's post. It is the right man, right marriage etc. The father had pubs in Liverpool and the father in 1925 had a pub in Horbury, West Yorkshire. Doing an online search I found someone posting on a forum in 2004 about the father who had this pub and giving information about some of the children. No mention of our man though he was probably the black sheep and not talked about.


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