Nearly 50 years ago, the Registrar came twice a week to the maternity hospital to register births (and to be advised of deaths I expect). I must have looked like a bit of a goer in my floor length maternity nightie and canvas nursing bra because after asking me if I was married, he snapped "when and where?". It's taken nearly 50 years and this thread to make me realise he probably went back to the office and checked, lol.
It's always been my understanding that (until recently) the father of a married woman's child is her husband unless she offers the information that he isn't. (When she, not the husband, is doing the registration.) I have several times come across birth certificates of a child born to a married/widowed woman which bear no father's name. Indexes are finding aids not information packs - if you want the information then buy the certificate! Thought every serious researcher understood that.
OC
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