Joseph Rutherford illegitimate son of Helen Rutherford born cerca 1842 Scotland?
The Rutherford side of my family starts with the illegitimate birth of Joseph Rutherford to Helen Rutherford domestic servant.
However, the only information regarding this that I have is the information given on his marriage registration when he married a Jane Weild. This document and all the censuses in which he appears all confirm the year of his birth to be 1842.
But in some of the documents his birth place is listed as Gretna and in others Annan. I've been on to http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/and haven't been able to find any illegitimate Joseph Rutherford born in the whole of Scotland at the time. If he wasn't sure if he was born in Annan or Gretna I guess he could even be wrong about being born in Scotland, especially as both towns are on the border.
I have found census information about a Helen Rutherford Living in Half Morton which is quite near, who would have only been about 17 at the time so she is a possibility, she never married and lived a rather long life as a house maid for her relatives.
My mum says that you need a birth certificate to have a marriage certificate, so that would suggest that he must have one-although I suspect that at that period this was not the case.
As I know who the defendants of Joseph are I doubt anyone can help me with his info, but perhaps someone knows of a Helen Rutherford living in England or Scotland at the time who might have had an illegitimate son.