Quick question about Banns, please!

[Lal]

The LMA info on Ancestry has been fantastic for me but i have a number of Banns which have not ended in a marriage - one of which could explain why my baker GxGF joined the Army!

I have a niggling question......

I have a rel born before a wedding and therefore thought that he was the issue of a previous marriage, but I have found that there were Banns read at one Church for the parents. They were both single but there was no wedding. Then four years later they were read again at another Church, both still single, and the wedding was there. He was born in between these Banns.

I know I had Banns read at my wedding back in the 1970s, but has there ever been any time limit between the Banns and the Wedding - say back in the 1800s?

Thanks

[Joan of Archives]

Hi Lal

There are rules about banns, generally they are read on the three Sundays in the three months prior to the wedding. I don't think this rule has changed since the time you mention :

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/weddings/weddingbanns.html

I hope that helps. :)

[Phoenix]

I'm sure there was a time limit - I think it was 6 months, but those who know more can obviously correct me.

There could also be various reasons why a marriage did not take place. One ancestor got two girls pregnant at the same time - which I don't think endeared him to either!

Some people describe themselves as single when they aren't and some have occupations where marriage is frowned on/ not permitted. I have read the diary of a man who was a live-in servant. The birth of a son is referred to so obliquely that his employers would not even have guessed he was married, let alone that he had a family.

[Lal]

Thank you Joan & Phoenix

Niggle solved!!

My best one was where the father was a hairdresser and I have found two weddings for his daughter. She married two widowers, both hairdressers and both very much older than her!

At the first wedding she was already in her thirties and on both certificates she says she is a spinster - i have this picture of her marrying them and killing them off!!;(

I also wondered if she had earlier weddings too! A serial hairdresser marrier!:d

Regards