Read this thrilling article by Nadja Durbach on letters to the General Records Office UK. Parents tried to change children's birth certificates that revealed illegitimacy, as the documents became a form of ID in the 1920s and 30s: academic.oup.com/tcbh/article.... Each letter is such a family story
academic.oup.com
Private Lives, Public Records: Illegitimacy and the Birth Certificate in Twentieth-Century Britain
Abstract. In the early decades of the twentieth century, as the British government expanded its social programs, and private charities and co-operative ass
