Siblings as marriages witnesses question

[Davedrave]

(There may already be a post on this but I couldn’t spot one.)

In every case where I can (I think) identify witnesses to marriages who are related to the bride and/or groom, I think that all are either brother or sister (or the spouse of brother or sister). I can’t think of a marriage witnessed by a parent. Was this pretty much “standard practice”?

[aghadowey]

What country/area? what time period? I've found quite a few marriages where a parent is one of the witnesses (most commonly it is the father) in Ireland and Scotland in the 1800s. Years ago most marriages were not big social events but in the last 100 years or so it was probably common for witnesses to be best man & maid/matron of honour.

[Davedrave]

What country/area? what time period? I've found quite a few marriages where a parent is one of the witnesses (most commonly it is the father) in Ireland and Scotland in the 1800s. Years ago most marriages were not big social events but in the last 100 years or so it was probably common for witnesses to be best man & maid/matron of honour.

England in the late C18th and during the C19th.

[jorose]

I have been told (informally), that historically younger witnesses were preferred.
This was because in case of there being any case requiring the witnesses to give testimony regarding the marriage, they were more likely to be alive and able to remember.

Witnesses did not have to be of adult age, either; only able to understand the situation and what was required of them, so can sometimes be teenagers.

[Davedrave]

Thanks, I suppose that makes sense. Certainly some of the witnesses I know of would have been in their teens.

Dave

[carol8353]

I married in the 1970's and my mum was a witness. My dad had died when I was a child and so it was suggested as it would be the last chance to show my maiden name.

[AntonyMMM]

As a registrar I had witnesses aged between 12 and 90+, and a whole selection of family, friends and in one case complete strangers who had never met the couple before. Parents, particularly mothers, featured quite regularly.

They can be an often overlooked source of important info for research if you can work out who they were and what the connection might have been (if there was one).

But as there are no rules about witness eligibility it isn't something that you can make any generalisations about really.

[zetlander]

Often the bridesmaid(s) and best man would have been siblings to the bride and groom and would have been well placed to sign the Marriage Certificate after the ceremony.

[andrewalston]

I've come across several where a parent was a witness.

When my dad's parents married in 1926, both the bride's parents signed, along with her brother and her bridesmaid. The groom's side didn't get a look in!

There seems to have been a fashion for having more than 2 witnesses. Around a quarter of the marriages at that church in the first quarter of the 20th century had at least three.