Your
Kuehne/Broesecke (please explicitly notice how the German umlauted characters ü and ö are substituted!! - only(!!) correct way here > ue and oe) example refers to your topic here
I need help translating the brides section of this marriage for Marie Elisabeth Brosecke to Christoph Theodo Alsleben. https://www.archion.de/p/4a3fbc0c00/ I know she was born Kuhne but took her step father Christoph Brosecke name.....but not sure what all is written under her area of notes...
www.archion.de
Which already answers a significant part of your question since it provides details about the legal process which was necessary to make Marie Elisabeth Kuehne to Marie Elisabeth Broesecke.
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To kind of drastically simplify the law:
-father and mother
married before a child was
born >> legitimate child >> child received the
father's family name
-father and mother
not married before a child was
born >> illegitimate child >> child received the
mother's family name
It is totally
out of any relevance for being a legitimate or an illegitimate child if the father of the child was known or unknown.
Even a later marriage of the parents of the illegitimately / out of wedlock born child does
not automatically make such child a legitimate one. Instead, even in such case a separate legal "process / record" was required in which:
1. the father had to explicitly acknowledge paternity, plus(!!)
2. explicitly allows that the child takes his family name (instead of the mother's family name).
Does that clear the mud?
If not or not totally please provide explicit examples (including permalinks to the records) which you may want to discuss.
Thanks and regards,
Vera