Genealogy Chat

Hi Gwyneth You probably have tried this already but how about the Hugh Wallis Batch number sites? I have had a lot of luck there with dates I couldn't find elsewhere. Rgds Margaret.

Thank you for your input Christine. Goodness. Imagine the headteacher's family trying to track all those marriages. Re. your own searches, it's always good to hear how people have made breakthroughs. .... People on these boards must be sick of hearing about my Henry SHEATH. I post him everywhere that invites, eg. brickwall threads etc. Just in case you don't know about him ( Lol) this is what I have.... Henry SHEATH married Harriet, April 1837 in St Marys, Southampton. No SHEATH witnesses. They had several children in Southampton before Harriet died there in 1860, and Henry died 1880. Census details show him born Beaulieu, Hampshire c. 1813. He was a blacksmith. In 1802 in Beaulieu, a Thomas SHEATH married Jane. They had several children baptised there, - with a gap between 1810 child and one in 1816...... but nothing for Henry. Thomas was a blacksmith. By 1841, Thomas and Jane had moved to the Isle of Wight with son George, another blacksmith, and died there. So I have nothing to link Thomas and Henry although I strongly suspect that they are father and son. Any thoughts, anyone?

I did manage to find another route to parent-info on earlier births, but the circumstances are unusual. My husband's Gx3-g-father was married in 1808, then widowed; in 1811 (by licence) & 1812 (by banns) to his Gx3-g-mother, then widowed; and then in 1841. I had found records of the earlier events in the IGI online, so was able to look for the relevant church register copies, so then I could see enough info - including what his signature was like - to compare. I made an educated guess about which church the later wedding took place in and it's post-1837 so, when I found the copy of the Register entry, it shows his father's name and occupation. That isn't quite as good as the Baptism entry would be, but it's a great help. I was working with a major advantage of an unusual name. Christine

Hello I had a look on the C of E website: http://www.*cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/weddings/ (remove *) I couldn't see any reference to Baptism being a requirement of a church ceremony - in these modern times. I suspect that, in the past, things have been more stringent. If I remember, I'll see if I can track down my Book of Common Prayer, and see what it says in the preamble to the Marriage service. On a parallel topic... I recall a conversation with my sons' former headteacher, whose husband's parents had been married several times. If I remember correctly... the first ceremony was in a Spanish village just before a wartime evacuation, so they had another ceremony at the consulate in order to make sure they had evidence that the wife was eligible for escape to UK; whichever, of the two ships they travelled in, that they chose as th after both arrived here safely; when it came to their children's Baptism, their RC priest wouldn't accept validity of ceremonies not in an RC church and so they were married again. And I'm not sure that that's all of the weddings! Christine

Did /does the Church of England require that someone has to be baptised before a church marriage ceremony.? If so, do they just take someone's word?..... I'm STILL hoping that somewhere I will find a record of my great great grandfather's(who was b. abt 1813) parents.