Question!!!

[charby]

I would like to know if when our ancestors married were their WITNESSES to their marriage ALWAYS someone from the family or could they have had friends as well?? Is it an important piece of information when looking at who the witnesses were???

thank you!

[Tati]

Anybody could be a witness 

[charby]

Well thank you for that quick response Tati 

[Berlin-Bob]

For a bit more on this (who and how old),  some more topics on Marriage Witnesses and Witnesses in the
RootsChat Reference Library => Lexicon ^{(click here)}

Bob

[Necromancer]

witnesses can be very useful in tracking down a family - earlier generations etc ....

[charby]

Thank you all for your help

[aghadowey]

In many cases it could have been a witness for the bride and another from the groom's relatives or close friends.

[skb]

In some parish registers you can see that certain people (presumably church officials) act as "professional witnesses". Their names occur time and time again.

[aghadowey]

In our church for many years the two most common witnesses were the sexton who lived just across from the church and the schoolmaster (the school was in front of the church).