[#7635] uekte

[Gjest Melissa Hvidsten]

Does anyone know, is this term used exclusively to state that a child is illegitimate, or can it mean that a child was conceived in a previous marriage, or that a child was conceived before the couple was actually married, or does it mean that the child was BORN before the parents were married? Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Gjest Sissel Endresen]

It mean`s that the parents was not married when the child was born. An sometimes the parent`s never be married.

[Gjest Melissa Hvidsten]

Do you know if that was fairly common/accepted around 1890 among Norwegians? I'm a little confused by my ancestors from Vestfold. After moving to the US, he supposedly married a woman who had a child from a previous marriage. I know without a doubt that this child was NOT his. I have a marriage license dated 1889, but no actual record of the marriage actually taking place. They also had several children together before 1889. I was wondering if there was a possibility that they could have been married in the church and then later applied for a license with the state? This doesn't make much sense. The baptism record of their first child together says "uekte" but no other children born before 1889 seem marked that way (I think they had 3 before 1889 and all died very young). Interestingly enough, he ended up in an institution for the insane when he was in his 40s and lived there for about 15 years and then died there. He supposedly made accusations about his wife's character which everyone else chalked up to the ravings of a madman.

[Gjest Svein Arnolf Bjørndal]

It was not really accepted, but happened anyway more places than others for various reasons. There were more illegitimate childs born in cities, partly because women from the surrounding countryside went there and "hid" when they got pregnant, partly because there often were more opportunities in the cities with work etc., and a couple would more easily "come together" before marriage - it was not a catastrophe if the girl got pregnant. But then she also could risk that her boyfriend ran away.If a girl was serving in a houshold, as was common to do before both sexes got married, she could also risk to get pregnant in the household by the son or even the married father there.And there are of course at all times some people who are more easily seduced than others.

[Gjest Jan Oldervoll]

A very large proportion, in some areas a majority, of Norwegian brides were pregnant before 1900. A large proportion of the children born out of wedlock seems to be thr result of a planned marrige which for some reason did not take place. In some case the father died, in most cases one of the reconsidered, in some cases the father could be more or less forced to reconsider.