I’ve strumbled across many birth acts where children are born from a celibate mother and an unknown father.
It would be interesting to add a “Recognition” event (choose the wording that fits), and be able to date back to when a child was recognized by one (or both) parents, and add the citation for the act (like for other events).
I know we can add custom events, but I feel it would be a nice additiona for all. We could add it next to the “Adoption” event.
Yes, I’m already using that term (Reconnaissance) for a custom event. Would the event only concern French genealogy? You can dismiss my suggestion if you think it’s not relevant for most users.
The concept of “Reconnaissance” has almost
stunned me. An official documentation process for the situation is truly alien to american culture.
Yet, with more thought, a birth certificate bears some superficial similarities. The mother is a matter of biological fact, not acknowledgement by that person. And the father designation is usually an assumption. (Few are backed up with paternity DNA or blood type testing.)
Perhaps a paternity test would be of a more similar nature? There is often an acknowdgement (or refusal) component to that process.
My first thought was to suggest using the event “Legal” with a description “Paternity Accepted” then I realized that “Legal” was one of my own custom events.
I can see why you might want an built-in Event type instead using a custom.
Reports do not typically include custom events until they too are customized. There is no classifying or handling implicit in a Custom Event. (Such as whether that event could be a “fallback” for key happening in one’s lifetime.) So the custom items are generally overlooked in standard tools and reports.
But the built-in Event types in Gramps have typically been inherited from the GEDCOM specifications. That’s because those Event types are more broadly supported in other genealogical tools.
Under Georgia law, an acknowledgment or determination of paternity establishes the biological condition of being a father. However, it does not establish a legal relationship between the father and child that offers custody or visitation rights.
Establishing paternity for a child in Georgia may be done in one of the following ways:
The child’s parents are legally married to each other at the time of the child’s birth;
Unwed parents sign a Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment Form at:
a. the hospital when the child is born, or later at either
b. the State Office of Vital Records in Atlanta or the Vital Records Office in the county where the child was born
Court order (divorce decree, separation agreement, or other judicial or administrative order).
Interesting subject. Each location might have different document names, and different reasons for making them.
I just wanted to mention that in the cases I found, in France, the “Reconnaissance” was done before paternity tests existed in the first place: beginning of the 20th century, or in the 19th century.
On the birth certificate, the child would have the mother’s surname and the father was “not named”. The child was considered illegitimate in the birth act. The mother had to recognize the child, and sometimes it took years before she did (for example, when the child would want to get married). Would you call that a maternity acknowlegment?
Sometimes, the child was only recognized by the mother, and never by a man. At other times, there was a wedding, and the mother’s new husband recognized the child as his own. The fact that the father was or wasn’t the biological father was irrelevant. If the mother hadn’t recognized the child before, the wedding could contain an ackowledgement from both parents. In that case, it’s not a “reconnaissance” but a “legitimation” because by getting married, their child would be legitimate.
The reconnaissance or legitimization is often noted in the birth act margin.
The recognition is not longer mandatory for the mother in France since 2005 apparently: it is now implicitely done through the birth act. I’m surprised to see this change is recent.
According to this site, a man could recognize a child as his own without the mother’s approval/participation. I haven’t met such as case yet.