May Merry - Forest of Dean & nearby - why don't the birthdates match?

[Capetown]

Checking the Forest of Dean records for : John MERRY as a witness - not sure if any relation

Marriage at Coleford

18 January 1941

Edward BALL - aged 22, Bachelor, Shop Assistant
residence: 29 Wheatstone Road, Gloucester

father: George Edward John BALL, Groundsman

married

Ivy Leila MERRY - aged 21, Spinster  (mother's maiden name HARDWICK, Glosbdm)
residence: Worcester Walk, Broadwell, nr Coleford

father: John MERRY, Collier

by banns

both sign

witnesses: George Arthur BALL and John MERRY
officiating Minster: Ernest H TUCKER Asst. Curate

[dtcoulson]

Capetown:

Looks to me as though this could not be the same John Merry. The one who married May Coulson was born in 1907. Yet Ivy Merry, the daughter in the record you looked at, would have been born in 1920, 16 years before May & John married and at a time when John would have been 13. I wonder how common the surname 'Merry' is in this region? He may be an uncle or something. However this is getting a bit far off track for my research, which is concerned with May Coulson and her siblings.

Your tack of inspecting records for a WITNESS is interesting and perhaps can be applied to another Coulson relative up north that I have been having trouble tracing. I presume you are in a historical society's library and looking at microfiche or original records. Do you think there is an equivalent in Newcastle that I can contact?

-DC

[KGarrad]

Using FreeBMD for Merry births, and a mother's maiden name of Coulson, with dates 1930 to 1960, throws up 4 births.

1938 Cheltenham district
1940 Forest of Dean district
1941 Forest of Dean district
1944 Forest of Dean district

I won't name names, as they could possibly still be living?

[ASimmons04]

Hello People
Having read the thread is there anyone with an ancestry tree including May Coulson/her siblings/parents etc etc?! The May Merry (Coulson) referred to in the thread is in fact  my maternal grandmother.