For all those who helped me brainstorm ideas on the three apparently illegitimate sons of Athalia Parish (see thread https://www.british-genealogy.com/for...ad.php?t=25668 ), it was suggested that I send for a birth certificate for one of the children. I chose the middle child, Charles Parish, b 1847 Chirk, Denbighshire, Wales, who happens to be my direct line. I opened the certificate today with much excitement! Guess what? No father is listed . It lists Athalia Parish as the mother and the father is left blank. Perhaps I am never to know who the father was? That fact may have been buried long long ago and will never resurface. My other option is to spend a further $70 Australian dollars on the certificates of the other two siblings. They may show the same thing as the one I already have. There may have been 3 different fathers? Do you think there were prostitutes in small mining Welsh towns with a population at the time of around 1500? Or perhaps it was an immaculate conception (or three ). I was jealous of all the black sheep I had read about on this site, and now I might have one of my own!