Secret Mother? Friend? Midwife? Who Is That Woman On the Birth Record?

If you have been researching your French ancestors for quite some time, you almost certainly will have come across a birth register entry on which the father was not named, père non dénommé. The father may have been present when his child was born, may have wanted to acknowledge it and give it his surname but, if he were married to a woman who was not the mother of the child, he was forbidden, by law, to acknowledge a child born to an adulterous relationship. This then becomes a possible clue. An unmarried, unnamed father could later claim or legitimate the child and your research would reveal this. An unnamed father who never legally claimed the child might possibly have been a married man, and that possibility can inform your research.

At times, the mother may also be unnamed, mère non dénommée. When it occurred that both parents were not named, the child was given two or three first names. The last could serve as a surname if the child were never adopted or as a middle name if they were. Such children were immediately put into care or given up for adoption. (We have only ever seen one case in which the mother was not named but the father was; highly unusual.) Here is an example of such a birth register entry for a child named Emile Léon Marcel, born in Paris in 1900, on which we have marked the key phrase, son of unnamed (or not identified) father and mother*:

Naturally, as a genealogist, you want to try to identify the father and mother. There rarely will be clues, just a few names. In the above, the names are:

• Henri Jules Bourrelier, the officer in the city hall of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, who is writing out the entry
• Marie Brunot, married name Romieu, the midwife (sage-femme) who made the birth declaration
• Séraphin Brunot, a mechanic, who may well have been the midwife's son or some other type of relation, present as a witness
• Louis Delevallé a printer who was also a witness

Before jumping to the conclusion that the printer, an extra witness, may have had a connection to the child, read through a few pages of the register to see if Louis Delevallé does not appear again and again as a witness, indicating that he was one of those people who made a bit of extra money by waiting around the City Hall and volunteering as a witness whenever one was needed. This same task can prove useful with the following example, the October 1905 birth of Draga Madeleine:

 

We have marked for you these details concerning the declaration:

• The baby was born at Avenue d'Italie, number 50, in the 13th arrondissement, to an unnamed father and mother
• The declarant was Emilie Prévost, married name Martin, aged forty, a seamstress, who lived at the same address and who was present at the birth.
• The first witness was Louise Anken, married name Calmon, aged thirty-eight, a hairdresser, living at Avenue d'Italie, number 11.
• The second witness was Louise Dumur, aged fifty, the concierge at the building of Avenue d'Italie, number 50.

None of the three women, the declarant and the two witnesses, is identified as a midwife. Two lived at the same address as where the baby was born. It is very tempting to wonder if one of them may not actually be the mother of the child, but beware ! Do not make such an assumption without doing a bit more work.

Firstly, check through the register, looking at other entries. Doing this, we found that they did reappear. The next day, Lucien Victor Wagner, a legitimate child whose parents were both named, was born at rue Nationale, no. 117. The declarant and witnesses were:

• Emilie Prévost, married name Martin, aged forty, a seamstress, who lived at avenur d"Italie, no. 50, and who was present at the birth.
• The first witness was Louise Anken, married name Calmon, aged thirty-four, a hairdresser, living at Avenue d'Italie, number 11.
• The second witness was Louise Dumur, aged fifty, the concierge at the building of Avenue d'Italie, number 50.

 

On the 12th of October, Marie Alice Guénot was born at the home of her parents in rue Albert. The same three women made the declaration and were witnesses:

We found two more birth register entries in the same month with the same three women as declarants and witnesses. Clearly, none of them is the mother of Draga Madeleine. They are not identified as midwives but would seem to have been operating as such.

Secondly, check to see if your women are registered as midwives. The Paris Police published regularly a list of doctors, health officers, midwives, dentists and pharmacists who were licensed to practice in Paris, Liste des docteurs en médecine, officiers de santé, sages-femmes, chirurgiens-dentistes et pharmaciens : exerçant dans le ressort de la Préfecture de police, of which many issues may be found here on Gallica. There is no issue for 1905; the closest year is for 1897. None of the women appear in the list of midwives. However, at avenue d'Italie, no. 11, the address of Louise Anken, there was a doctor, Emile Laurent. He was still there in 1913, the year of the next available issue of the publication. Perhaps Anken and Dr. Laurent had some sort of association or perhaps not. None of the women appears in the 1913 issue as a midwife.

So, even though the women in the birth register entry are not identified as midwives and though they are not registered as such, they were obviously performing that function, as evidenced by their repeated appearance in the birth register, and by the many children born at the address of two of them, avenue d'Italie, no. 50. None of them was the mother of any of the children they registered. As for little Draga Madeleine, the only clue as to the identity of her parents may be her highly unusual name, Draga, which could indicate that at least one parent was Serbian and that they had requested the midwife give that name to her.

The lesson here is to read more of the register than just the entry that interests you. Much can be learned and mistaken assumptions may be prevented.

©2022 Anne Morddel

French Genealogy

 

 

*All of the images used in this post come from the website of the Archives de Paris: https://archives.paris.fr/