Title XXXI TRUSTS AND ESTATES OF DECEDENTS AND PERSONS UNDER DISABILITY Chapter 474 Effective - 28 Aug 1955 474.070. Legitimation by marriage. — If a man, having by a woman a child or children, afterward intermarries with her and recognizes the child or children to be his, they are thereby legitimated. -------- (RSMo 1939 § 315, A.L. 1955 p. 385 § 242) Prior revisions: 1929 § 315; 1919 § 312; 1909 § 341 (1967) This statute applies not only to a child born out of wedlock, but also to a child born in wedlock, but sired by a man who was not the mother's husband. The three essential elements of legitimation under this section are actual paternity, intermarriage and recognition. Simpson v. Blackburn (A.), 414 S.W.2d 795.
Missouri Legal Code