The deficiencies in the official statistics do not mean that it is impossible to determine data on the legitimization of illegitimate children in the19th century Silesia. The recognition of a child was recorded in the church records. As a case study the parish of Groszowice was selected. It was one of the parishes of the archpresbyterate of Opole. The Catholic parish of Groszowice included Grotowice – a village founded in the so-called period of the Frederician colonization, and the majority of its inhabitants were Protestants (members of the Evangelical parish in Opole).
This text focuses primarily on the problem of establishment of a legal relationship between an illegitimate child and his/her biological father. The years 1819-1870 were chosen as a time-frame. Phyton was used for carrying out the analysis (aggregative method, elements of family reconstruction). With the exception of Grotowice, the total of the illegitimate births corresponded to the percentage distribution of the number of inhabitants of particular villages in the total population of the parish. Out of 221 illegitimate children only 30 were legalized or adopt. All adopted children were born in the Protestant Grotowice. It has been possible to establish some single mother families, where this model was present through a few generations. The number of cases when the status of a child was legally altered, was surprisingly low.
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