Missing Marriage

[cally_c]

Hi
I wondered if I could ask for some advice?
I have been looking for a marriage between a Robert Richardson & a Sarah Percival for months without success.
They married sometime between the 1871 and 1881 Census and despite many searches through the BMD indexes I haven't been able to find them.
Robert was born in Staithes, North Yorks, while Sarah was born in Manchester.  Their first child, to my knowledge, was born in Nottingham 11 days before the Census., they are married according to his birth cert.
The family story was that Robert 'walked' from Yorkshire, working his way down the country till he settled in Nottingham.  So the marriage could have taken place anywhere between Manchester, North Yorks & Nottingham!
Is it possible that the marriage is missing from the BMD indexes & if so where else can I start looking?
Or would it have been possible that they never married; would they have been able to say they were married on their children's birth certs & their later death certs?

thank-you!
cally

[hepburn]

Cally,
         This might be a load of bunkhum!! but there is a marriage 1879 Sarah Percival to George Richardson in Ormskirk 8b 1034...

[nanny jan]

Cally,

One of my gtgrandmas claimed to be married on all 10 of her childrens' birth certs and her husband's death cert.   Even on her own death cert she is shown as "widow of......." but they never married!

Nanny Jan

[mshrmh]

LancashireBMD has the marriage in 1880
RICHARDSON  Robert PERCIVAL Sarah 1880 Manchester, Harpurhey, Christ Church Lancashire Manchester 62/1/478 (ref for certificate applications to Manchester, not GRO)
There is an * against the entry - following it through it appears that Sarah was also listed as Sarah Farnworth - you may need to dig further to find a previous marriage or perhaps one is a name taken after her mother's marriage.

[cally_c]

Hi!
Thank-you oonagh, nanny jan & mshrmh for your replies, they are much appreciated!
I'm going to send for the certificate from Harpurhey - Robert's brother's first child was born there in 1878, according to the 1881 Census, so that may be how they met in the first place!
I had a quick look at the GRO and they list a marriage in Prestwich in 2nd quarter between a Robert Richardson & a Sarah Farnsworth - explains why I haven't been able to match him up with a Percival.
Thank-you very much again, this has helped me enormously!

cally

[cally_c]

After posting the above - found Sarah's first marriage  and her first husbands death, both in 1878.

Thank-you very, very much!!!!

cally

[mshrmh]

Cally, glad to see you've had success. Just in case you've not come across the various countyBMD sites hers is an overall link
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/
If you select a county in the left hand column it will take you to links for that county - quite a few now - like FreeBMD they're not complete, but are easy to search and have some later coverage than FreeBMD.
Best wishes with the searching.

[cally_c]

Thank-you for the link - I'll keep it in mind!

Best wishes
cally