I thought that US law (obviously, not a federal law, but the states in general) had done away with the disctinctions between il/legitimate, although I guess no longer distinguishing doesn't mean the law hasn't been repealed or something like that.
Natter 54: Right here, dammit.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Isn't that what illegitimate means?
Isn't that the definition of illegitimate?
but is that a legal definition? and what happens if your parents get married after you're born. Are you still illegitimate?
I thought that "illegitimate children" were considered "not to have a father" meaning that they don't get his name and can't inherit from him.
eta: Vortex says it better than I did. That's what I was getting at - is there any legal significance to being born to unmarried parents?
I am from NY, and my parents were not married when I was born, or ever after. I also do not have a father listed on my birth certificate that I know of. As far as I know I am "illegitimate", but I don't know what this means legally at all.
A new adaptation of A Room with a View from the man who brought us the Firth/Ehle Pride and Prejudice - I think.
This is from wikipedia, in case anyone but me is interested:
Legitimacy was formerly of great consequence, in that only legitimate children could inherit their fathers' estates. In the United States, a series of Supreme Court decisions in the early 1970s abolished most, but not all, of the common-law disabilities of bastardy as violations of the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
It doesn't totally answer my question, but comes very close.
disabilities of bastardy
Great band name.
Or an excuse to call in to work: "Sorry, I have too many disabilities of bastardy to come to work today."
This is sort of weird-- I just tried to order a copy of my birth certificate on-line, and I have to know the "father's name as listed"-- except, I dont think one is. (I don't have a copy of my birth certificate, just some yellow piece of paper that is somehow a certificate of having a certificate???)
At least here [link] (see section 24) you are legitimate if your parents are married after you are born. I didn't look at probate law though, and can't recall from T&E what the status of it is.