Children born out of wedlock - it's been going on since the beginning of time. The nice thing is that there are records you can search to see if this is actually the case. In colonial America and throughout the 19th century, there were "bastardy bonds." This is when a woman went to court and stated that she has had a child out of wedlock and names the father. The court then located the father and ordered him to provide for his child. Most of these can be found in your local archives. Some of them may be on microfilm and some may be loose in boxes. It is a real treat to read through these.

Some judges are a lot nicer than others when requesting that the father appear. There may be other court records involved with this. If the father is no longer alive, or is missing or unknown, a guardian would have been appointed for the child even if the mother was able to provide for them. This was usually a better off relative, but it could have been any prominent male in the community. Another reason children were born out of wedlock was war. If an unmarried woman has a child, and it is during one of the known wars or conflicts, be sure to check to see where the men from that area enlisted. Daddy's name may be there. Also, when talking about children born out of wedlock, in many countries certain religions were not recognized locally. Marriages performed by unauthorized clergy were not considered valid. Native Americans were not allowed to marry whites, neither were slaves. In fact, slaves were not allowed to marry at all. At a government level, these people were not considered married. However, spiritually and morally they were. Then we have common law. If a couple is living together as man and wife and never bothered to officially register as married, but present themselves as married, it can be considered a common law marriage. Children born into a common law marriage may be considered to be born in wedlock. The laws vary from location to location.