Did my great-grandparents ever marry?

[coombs]

I once asked Anthony Adolph on a live chat about why some people never seemed to marry but appeared married. He said "For lots of reasons people claimed to be married when they were not". I think Martin you may have to accept the "elephant in the room" that they never actually married. I have a Sylvanius Clift and Minnie Richardson who said to be married but never actually married. And  a few others who should have married after civil reg begun but never seemed to, unless there was a gross mis-transcription or a missed entry, which is possible for your George Leggett. I read the book "A comedy of errors" about missing entries in the GRO index when they did actually take place.

[ThrelfallYorky]

I have a feeling that some Non-conformist or Quaker marriages may not be easily available online. C of E is easiest, and R C is getting better in many areas, but my non-conformist lot, if they didn't bow to the legalities of the Parish church, seem very elusive!

[ReadyDale]

I was at a talk at WDYTYA Live (the last one at Olympia) and (to paraphrase) the speaker mentioned that sometimes local priests were slow to return their registers in a given quarter and the entries missed being included in the GRO's index. He gave the example of his daughter whose marriage does not show up in the indexes, but he knows it happened, as he was present. It was available if you enquired at the local office. He did quote estimated numbers that this applied to, but I cannot remember them know.
Obviously this won't apply to most of the "missing" marriages - they were just "living in sin", but it is worth bearing in mind as a possibility.

[Little Nell]

I have some serial marriage-averse people on the tree.

My maternal great-grandparents did not marry in the early 20th century.  Great-granny had married at age 17 and then seems to have deserted her husband and older son for my great-grandfather (and more children).  Her younger son from her marriage used her new partner's name for the rest of his life.

My paternal great-grandparents did not marry, although both were free to do so.  Great-granny had three partners - two husbands (got both marriage certificates) but did not marry my grt-grandfather (middle partner).  Grt-grandfather did not marry his first partner either, although birth certificates for all bar one child would appear to indicate that they did.  And his father did not marry until after his 6th child arrived over 15 years into the relationship!  All children were baptised with their father's name.

And I have no idea why.

Nell

[Ayashi]

The only irregular marriage I can think of that appears in my tree is John F RICHARDS to Ellen GILL... Nobody could find it, until I saw something and took a punt at it. The marriage, as John RICHARDS and Ellen RICHARDS, occurred when she was six months pregnant with their third child and coincided with him enlisting in the army, so presumably in order to get certain marriage benefits!

[Mart 'n' Al]

Firstly, Macwill, I meant that I didn't originally seen the hints but thank you.

Jane Adamson, my great grandmother was briefly married and widowed in 1889/90 before taking up with George Leggett my great grandfather.

The main reason I am interested in finding the second marriage certificate if it exists is to be sure about what their respective parents did for jobs as there is some doubt about the parents.

Can anyone tell me, how likely is it that a father's name could appear incorrectly on a transcribed certificate, without the (literate) bride ever being aware.

The bride was called Jane Adamson and her father is named as Edward Adamson, engineer, but we believe that Jane was raised by her father, Edwin Potter, but Jane continued to use her mother's maiden name as she was conceived before the marriage to Edwin Potter.

So after a lot of research I think it is feasible that somebody misheard the name Edwin and wrote Edward, and assumed that because the bride's surname was Adamson it was believed that the father's name would also be Adamson. Sherlock Holmes said that once you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however unlikely, that is the solution.

I have looked at census entries for 1871, 1881, and 1891 for every Edward Adamson in the country and the closest to an engineer I was able to get were a gas fitter and a boilermaker, neither of which would really be described as engineers. Both of these were described as single men.

Can anyone with local knowledge of Durham or North Yorkshire, where the wedding would have taken place, in 1889 if there was one, give any further suggestions?

Martin

[macwil]

. . .
Can anyone tell me, how likely is it that a father's name could appear incorrectly on a transcribed certificate, without the (literate) bride ever being aware.
. . .
Martin

Very!
I have seen one story of a relatively recent marriage where the bridegroom checked the certificate one final
time before putting it in his pocket and only then realising that his new father-in-law was described as deceased, despite having given the bride away minutes earlier AND being acquainted with the officials conducting the proceedings. Red faces all round and hasty corrections.

[Ayashi]

I've had a few occupations that were wrong or switched around. The aforementioned Ellen GILL who married as Ellen RICHARDS had her father down as William RICHARDS (who was William GILL). I can well imagine "So, what's your name?" "Ellen Richards" "And what is your father's name?" "William." "Righto..."

[Little Nell]

Can anyone tell me, how likely is it that a father's name could appear incorrectly on a transcribed certificate, without the (literate) bride ever being aware.

Very easily, I think.

Not quite the same, but I have a certificate where the middle name of the bride's father was entered incorrectly by the vicar.  He had prefilled out the register - and the certificate that he handed to the newly-married couple.  It was noticed but not corrected and all parties were literate.

Nell