Another very useful module has now been completed and uploaded to the Blantyre Project website. Introducing “Historical Blantyre Paternity Cases.”

These days questions about the rightful father of a child can easily be answered by DNA testing. But prior to this, if paternity was contested by either the child’s mother or alleged father, it could be taken to court to be resolved. For Blantyre people, this meant going to Hamilton Sheriff Court for a case to be heard.

I was surprised to learn there were many cases where this happened and decided to compile them here for reference. Of course, the privacy of modern individuals is respected by omitting all recent cases where a person could still be living. This left 100 Blantyre Paternity Cases from records beginning in 1845 up until the time of WW1 in 1914. To clarify,

This is a list of all the Blantyre cases that appear in the Hamilton Sheriff court registers of extracted decrees. There would have been other cases, perhaps many more, where the case was heard and proven but not extracted. With thanks to Margaret at Scottish Indexes who painstakingly transcribed these particular records.

In alphabetical order of the Pursuer’s (mothers) surname. Their stories will all be told in time against each of the names. I hope this assists those people searching for ancestors. It can be found on the main Blantyre Project website here: