legitimatio

LEGITIMATION. The act of giving the character of legitimate children to 
those who were not so born. 
     2. In Louisiana, the Civil Code, art. 217, enacts that "children born 
out of marriage, except those who are born of an incestuous or adulterous 
connexion, may be legitimated by the subsequent marriage of their father and 
mother whenever the latter have legally acknowledged them for their 
children, either before their marriage, or by the contract of marriage 
itself." 
     3. In most of the other states the character of legitimate children is 
given to those who are not so, by special acts of assembly. In Georgia, real 
estate may descend from a mother to her illegitimate children and their 
representatives, and from such child, for want of descendants, to brothers 
and sisters, born of the same mother, and their representatives. Prince's 
Dig. 202. In Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont and Virginia, 
subsequent marriages of parents, and recognition by the father, legitimatize 
an illegitimate child  and in Massachusetts, for all purposes except 
inheriting from their kindred. Mass. Rev. St. 414. 
     4. The subsequent marriage of parents legitimatizes the child in 
Illinois, but he must be afterwards acknowledged. The same rule seems to 
have been adopted in Indiana and Missouri. An acknowledgment of illegitimate 
children, of itself, legitimatizes in Ohio, and in Michigan and Mississippi 
marriage alone between the reputed parents has the same effect. In Maine, a 
bastard inherits to one who is legally adjudged, or in writing owns himself 
to be the father. A bastard may be legitimated in North Carolina, on 
application of the putative father to court, either where he has married the 
mother, or she is dead, or married another or lives out of the state. In a 
number of the states, namely, in Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode 
Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia, a bastard takes by descent from 
his mother, with modifications regulated by the laws of these states. 2 
Hill, Ab. s. 24 to 35, and the authorities there referred to. Vide Bastard; 
Bastardy; Descent.