Tutorial - Sex, illegitimacy and cohabitation, 1700-1960s with Rebecca Probert

'Sex, illegitimacy and cohabitation, 1700-1960s' 

Do you wonder if you have ancestors who lived together without being formally married? Have you discovered that one of your ancestors was illegitimate? This talk looks at the social context of illegitimacy and cohabitation in past centuries, based upon many years of primary research, including studies of thousands of couples. It explains what the consequences of living together unmarried would have been for those involved. It will also provide new findings on the nature and extent of illegitimacy and cohabitation in past decades and centuries, in order to assist family historians with interpreting their findings.

Rebecca Probert is Professor of Law at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on the law and history of marriage, bigamy, divorce and cohabitation, and she is the author of numerous articles and books, including Marriage Law and Practice in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Reassessment (2009) and The Legal Regulation of Cohabitation: From Fornicators to Family, 1600-2010 (2012) and Tying the Knot: The Formation of Marriage 1836-2020 (2021), all published by Cambridge University Press. She has also published a number of guides for family historians, including Marriage Law for Genealogists (2012) and Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved? (2015). Her TV appearances include A House Through Time and Who Do You Think You Are?

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Please allow for two hours for the session, including joining and discussions. The talk will last approximately an hour.

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