Maybe I'm the lucky one.

[andrewalston]

I was looking through the Warwickshire records recently put up on Ancestry, filling in a few details of my distant relatives.

One chap, born in Eccleston in 1801, was a Gentleman's Coachman, and had married in 1851.

First task was to fill in the exact date, but it was virtually impossible to read because of a dark shadow heading diagonally from the top left corner. I scrolled down, and the lower entry on the page had the bride and groom's names completely obliterated.

That's when I also noticed distinct signs of the page having been burnt. This was no error by whoever filmed the register.

Suddenly it all clicked into place.

The church was St. Michael's, Coventry.

[CarolA3]

That sent a shiver down my spine.

If you haven't already been, make sure you visit St Michael's.  I'm not a churchgoer and have no Coventry connections, but your story triggered the memory of being there in 1989  ................  Powerful stuff.

Carol

[fallingonabruise]

 

[Liz_in_Sussex]

Hi,

     

St Michael's Coventry is the Cathedral which was bombed in WWII - I would imagine that the registers were partly destroyed during the ensuing fire, but what has been salvaged is now on Ancestry?

As Carol says, a visit to St Michael's is well worthwhile if you are near Coventry.  What remains of the second Cathedral (the one destroyed by the bomb) is a haunting reminder of what happened during the war, but the theme of the new (third) Cathedral is reconciliation and it is a beautiful example of modern Church architecture.

Liz