né d'un père légalement inconnu

20:54 Feb 12, 2020 

Wow, that sounds like a really interesting book. I'm sure there were huge numbers of children like that. There always are when countries engage in imperialism and/or foreign wars. US citizenship laws developed in the wake of the Vietnam War (thousands of soldiers' kids left there, etc.) are along the same lines.

20:02 Feb 12, 2020 

Thank you Eliza for your explanation and VIttoria for his suggestion. Below is a link someone else has sent me which I think is very relevant to the doct I am translating. Children born from 'unknow fathers' during colonial times (and not just) : http://www.mixedracestudies.org/?tag=emmanuelle-saada
http://www.mixedracestudies.org/?cat=28&paged=44

15:16 Feb 12, 2020 

Quick explanation:

1. Legal paternity: legal recognition that X is, for all legal purposes, the father of Y (whether through adoption, Y being born to X's wife during the marriage, X filling out the forms needed to be recognized as legal father, etc.).

2: Unknown paternity: we don't know who Y's bio-dad is. Y might have a legal father (e.g. through adoption), or might not. Either way, bio-dad is unknown.

There's no such thing as "unknown legal paternity," because you either have a legal father or you don't. The term "unknown paternity" refers to biological fatherhood -- it means you don't know who the kid's biological father is.

To be "born to a legally unknown father" (per Nicole's text) means that you have no legal father and you are considered to be the biological child of an unknown man. That doesn't necessarily mean your bio-dad is totally unknown. In Nicole's case, the father is presumed to be a white French guy -- I'm guessing because the kid is mixed-race and the mom says his dad was from France.