Illegitimacy Research Guide

Do you have "illegitimate" ancestors in your line? Individuals born outside of legal marriages where the name of the birth father may not be known? These resources may help you:

Online articles

• Missing Fathers, by Donna Przecha at genealogy.com
• Finding out about illegitimate ancestors, by Jenny Thomas
• Genealogy Pages Isle of Man - Illegitimacy, by Frances Coakley.
• Illegitimacy and illegitimates in English history by Alan Macfarlane, in Peter Laslett, Karla Oosterveen and Richard M. Smith (editors), 'Bastardy and its Comparative History, (Arnold, 1980)

Presentations

• In January 2010, Warren Bittner presented "Bittner Bastards in Bavaria" as a case in how to research illegitimacy in Europe. (Seeking link to his work.) (His dissertation on the subject is available through the ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis site available at most Universities and Colleges.)

Books

• Sacrified for Honor: Italian infant abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control by David I. Kertzer (1996); (link goes to review of book).
• The Art of Midwivery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe, by Nadia Maria Filippini
• Herndon, Ruth Wallis. Unwelcome Americans; Living on the Margin in Early New England (Philadelphia: University Press, 2001).
• Bellemore, Marilyn. The Exter Bastard Files: To ease tax burden, Exeter once carted away unwed mothers (2005).
• Sanborn, Melinde Lutz. Lost Babes. Fornication Abstracts From Court Records Essex County, Massachusetts 1692 to 1745 (1992).

Do you have a good resource related to this topic? Please add it!