Genealogy Chat

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Boards

Quick Search

Single word search

Tools

Findmypast DNA Banner

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

married twice?

Login to Add Reply Watch This
ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Helen

Helen Report 27 Oct 2004 15:06

I've come across a couple on the IGI who appear to have married twice, 10 Dec 1804 Wrockwardine and 31 Dec 1804 Shifnal. The couple are Isaac Wall and Amelia Owen. Wrockwardine and Shifnal are both in Shropshire and about 8 miles apart. There doesn't appear to be more than one Isaac Wall in the area at this time, so can anyone explain why this may have happened.

Phoenix

Phoenix Report 27 Oct 2004 15:10

It may be coincidence, but those two dates are 3 weeks apart. You might be looking at entries from a banns book for the earlier date (these can look very like marriage registers, particularly if hand written and occasionally the book doubles as both) and a pukka marriage register for the later date. Brenda

Helen

Helen Report 27 Oct 2004 15:14

Am I right in thinking that the Banns would be read in both the bride's and the groom's parishes? So possibly this might indicate where the two were living pre-marriage? Although I thought Isaac was living in Wellington which is in the middle of Wrockwardine and Shifnal....

Phoenix

Phoenix Report 27 Oct 2004 15:26

Yes and possibly. I have no local knowledge of Shropshire either of the parishes or the working patterns. My ancestors tended to marry in the parishes where their parents lived, or where they intended to live, but in the previous year they might have been a live in servant in any parish within a radius of five miles or so. Brenda

Helen

Helen Report 27 Oct 2004 15:37

Thanks for your advice.

Carole

Carole Report 27 Oct 2004 15:54

I had something similar with 2 of my ancestors, except their marriages were 10 months apart. They took place in the areas they were working at the time (he was a butler), not in either of their hometowns. I put a thread on here too, & reached the conclusion that they had lost their original certificate & needed to prove they were married for accomodation purposes (or somesuch) & decided that re-marrying was the only way to get proof! I now have copies of both certificates, they are definitely the same couple. Ancestors! I'm sure they did things like this just to make our jobs harder 150 years later! Carole

Guinevere

Guinevere Report 27 Oct 2004 16:32

Hi, I agree that it's likely to be an entry made by someone mistaking the banns book for the register. The only way to be sure is to check the originals. The IGI has many mistakes and mistranscriptions. Gwynne

Researching:
Lowestoft and North Suffolk, Monmouthshire, Breconshire, Somerset

Christine in Herts

Christine in Herts Report 27 Oct 2004 18:50

The circumstances were rather different, but I did hear of a couple who were married several times because of difficulties proving their married status. It was ww2 and thy were married in the bride's village in Spain. They decided that one was going to be a more reliable carrier of the certificate en route for UK than the other, but guessed wrong, so they had to marry again after the cert went down with the ship. And then the local priest wouldn't believe that the civil service was valid for RC purposes, so they married again. I'm not sure that someting else didn't happen to cause another wedding! Christine