Children in the Crossfire: Paternity, Law, and Survival in Nineteenth Century Transylvania

This article examines paternity suits filed in the Năsăud District of Transylvania, between 1861 and 1876, using a corpus of seventy court cases involving children born out of wedlock. Located in a former military border region undergoing administrative transition, these suits illuminate the negotiation of fatherhood, legitimacy and community honour within a semi-autonomous local legal culture under Habsburg rule. Drawing on detailed court records, the study explores how women – often impoverished and socially marginalised – used legal mechanisms to claim support for their children, while male defendants and their families mobilised communal solidarities to contest or minimise responsibility. The article argues that local courts acted as hybrid spaces, where formal civil law, vernacular justice and moral economy intertwined. Through the analysis of oaths, testimonies, settlements, and custodial arrangements, it reveals how paternity was not merely a biological fact, but a negotiated social role shaped by gender, reputation, and material survival. By centring the child as a legal subject and examining the strategic agency of women in a patriarchal society, the article contributes to broader debates on the history of childhood, legal pluralism, and rural justice in 19th-century Europe.