how can you be sure youve got the right person?
I hate to burst your bubble, but it is NEVER certain. In olden times, babies were born at home. The mid-wife (or whomever delevered the baby) knew for certain who the mother was. Now, babies are born at clinics or hospitals; misups are frequent. The baby you take home may not be yours! Then there is the problem of infidelity: doctors claim that up to 20% of babies born have a father that is NOT married to the mother! I don’t know what you Brits call it, but we Yanks call it “hanky-panky”. I have heard tell that the Brits did NOT establish public records until after 1837, so I am not certain what is the significance of 1837. However, I do know (most of my ancestors that came to the Colonies, or, later on, the States, came from England or Wales) that churches kept records of births, baptisms (christenings), marriages, deaths, et al. There are 2 major problems with these church records (other than records being destroyed, as when the Germans blitzed London in WWII): 1. The churches charge
