Genealogy Chat

Re: Pre 1837 Marriages Suzanne, Congratulations you have now joined the rest of us in the brick wall head-banging group. If you thought it was difficult post-1837 , boy you are in for some fun now!!! Pre 1837 it is very common for the priest not to record the names of the bride and grooms parents. There are a number of way's to trace your family pre-1837.Here's a few : 1) Assume that the family didn't move around much and that the Church where they married is also the one where the woman and possibly the man was christened and then look back on the Christenings for the parish and/or the town 2) Check the census' for the married couple, 1841 would be the first one for your couple looking for parents living/visiting with the family. I found a maternal Grandparent this way. In the 1881 census the oldest son of the family was living with his 80 year old maternal Grandfather. 3) Graveyard hunting - Often families had communal graves, I have one family whose family grave contained their teenage daughter, the husband of another daughter, the father and the mother and the oldest son and although this grave didn't have a headstone the cemtery information gave me lots of previously unknown leads. Don't give up hope pre 1837 tracing can be done, it jut takes a bit more work Regards Jo Corless