Genealogy Chat

Thank you for your replies-it's interesting what you've told me about the suitcases!

It did indeed save money .............. and many marriage certificates going all the way back to July 1837 will show the bride and groom ostensibly living at the same address

They were not living in sin ........... in many cases you will find that they were living with the parents of one or the other ........... or their suitcase was!

That was happening into the 1970's, Shirley.

One of the girls I went to school with wanted to marry in a certain village church. She lived in the town, but her Aunt lived in the Parish. Like your brother, her suitcase 'lived' at her Aunt's for a few weeks.

it was a well known myth that if you put your suitcase with some clothes in at the same address as the bride for 6 weeks before the banns then you could say you lived at the address

It saved putting banns in both parish churches as usually the marriage would take place in the brides parish .

This happened when my sister married in 1955 as her hubby didnt want to put the banns in his local church as he was a baptised Catholic and they married in our local High Church of England church . He didn't want aggro from the parish priests at his local church even though he wasn't a practising Catholic

He didnt live at ours but his suitcase did !!

Nearly all the marriage certificates I own show the couple both living at the same address. It was I think merely for convenience to save having banns read in two different parishes.
In general, i doesn't mean they were actually living together.

Thank you both ArgyllGran and Mel Fairy godmother. They did have their banns at Lambeth but they didn't marry there (I at first thought the GRO certificate was wrong and spent a long afternoon at the London metropolitan archives looking through a couple of years in the marriage books on microfilm for St Marys lambeth) I am a bit puzzled that on the marriage certificate it has them both down as living at 29 wellington street-surely this would be seen as living in sin? I think maybe they were staying with Sarah as it says on the census she was born in Westminster so I'm going to be looking into that...

If the census is correct, she was indeed only 16 when they married:

Henry Joseph Ellis
in the 1871 England Census

Name: Henry Joseph Ellis
Age: 24
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1847
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Maria Jane Ellis
Gender: Male
Where born: Lambeth Bond Court
Civil Parish: Lambeth
Ecclesiastical parish: St Andrew
County/Island: London
Country: England
Registration district: Lambeth
Sub-registration district: Waterloo Road First
ED, institution, or vessel: 11
Household schedule number: 124
Piece: 649
Folio: 58
Page Number: 17
Household Members:
Name Age
Henry Joseph Ellis 24
Maria Jane Ellis 21 - born Lambeth, Bond Court
Sarah Ellis 35 - sister
George Edwin Ellis 16 - nephew
Henry William Ellis 17 months - son




????
Births Jun 1849 (>99%)
DAVIES Maria Lambeth 4 324

It says on their banns that Maria is a Minor.

This is the banns and they were at St Mary's Lambeth in March so maybe they had to wait untill Maria was old enough if they married in Oct??

Name: Henry Ellis
Spouse: Maria Davis
Record Type: Banns
Event Date: 4 Mar 1866**********************
Parish: St Mary, Lambeth***********************
Borough: Lambeth
Register Type: Parish Register

Thank you Thelma for that info :-)

As said the image of the church register is on Fmp/Genes.
the name of the church is not mentioned.
The district church in the district of St Michaels strand.

Jaqueline-In case you're still interested in who and when I am researching Henry Joseph Ellis and Maria Jane Davis they married October 21st 1866 and they lived at 29 wellington street.

Thank you every one for your info :-)

I think FMP/GR has the original online

At GR, the search path is:
All Categories - Births, Marriages & Deaths
Collections in this Category - Marriages & Divorces
Records in this Collection - Westminster Marriages

They got married at St Michaels a chapel within the parish of St Martin in the Fields.

From the Internet:


St. Michael's Church, Burleigh Street

Demolished

St. Michael's was erected by the Church Building Commissioners in 1831–3 on a site at the south-west corner of Burleigh Street and Exeter Street, (fn. 7) and was initially a chapel within the parish of St. Martin in the Fields. The site was conveyed by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to the Church Building Commissioners on 26 April 1831.

District INFO................from freebmd

ST. MARTIN IN THE FIELDS REGISTRATION DISTRICT
•Registration County : London.
•Created : 1.7.1837.
•Abolished : 1.7.1868 (to become part of Strand registration district).
•Sub-districts : Charing Cross, Long Acre.
•GRO volumes : I (1837-51), 1a (1852-68).
•Registers currently held at : Westminster.


Table 1: List of Places in St. Martin in the Fields Registration District
Civil Parish
County
From
To
Comments
St. Martin in the Fields
Middlesex

1837

1868

See Table 2, note (a).

Table 2: Boundary Changes affecting St. Martin in the Fields Registration District
Date of Change
Note
Description of Change
Population transferred


1.7.1868 (abolished)

(a)
Lost the constituent parish of St. Martin in the Fields to Strand registration district.
22689 in 1861

Where on GR does the name of the Church appear?

I think if you check , you'll find it doesn't.........................only the registration district

The cert will be correct...................

Who married.........and when?

Hello I received a marriage certificate for my relative from the GRO. It is from a copy of a register of marriages in the registration district of st martin in the fields london.

At the top it has 'marriage solemnized at the district chuch in the district of st micheals (then it has another word I cannot read possibly starting with st...)

Does this mean they married at st micheals? I say this because when I have looked on genes reunited and it says they were married in st martin in the fields

Also where could I find the original record-westminster archives?

Any help appreciated

Dominique