Illegitimate children - how do we refer to them?

Question

My mother's Great Grandmother worked in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury in the 1840's and it is claimed that she had an illegitimate child by the Earl in 1850 (called Thomas Hunter, with Hunter being the maiden name of my Gt Gt Grandmother).  The earl paid for the education and upbringing of Thomas Hunter and when he was an adult he went to the USA to seek his fortune (where he became a friend of Buffalo Bill) and he returned to live in Liverpool in the 1880's. There, he was visited at home by Buffalo Bill (William Cody) when he brought his Wild West Show to London in 1887 - my mother recalled her mother saying she saw Buffalo Bill visit her father as a small child (which fits as her birth-date was in 1882). Do we include handed-down illegitimate sources or do we ignore them?

Answer 1

Agree with Jillaine. Such stories need to be told. It is important to back the story with good sources. Birth certificate if you have it, census returns, the more the merrier, so you can see that the story fits with the paper trail. No such thing as too many sources.

Comments

Note a merge of Talbot-3312 and Talbot-2207 has already been rejected but they are meant to be the same man.

Answer 2

I'd add it, citing Personal recollections of (your mother's name) as .told to (your name), date (if you know it).

I also see there's a first person account on the narrative now.  If you are the "I", you should "sign" it with your name or four tildes: ~~~~