Genealogy Chat

The witnesses at a wedding maybe an engaged couple who later get married.

that's true Terry, or they may be totally unrelated. Ann glos

I have had witnesses who married each other later - but of course you don't know whether they were engaged before or after the wedding (ie being witnesses might have drawn them together!) nell

I've had one family where the wittnesses were the brides mother and maternal grandfather and another where the witnesses were the grooms brother and aunt. I beleive the witnesses to my parents marriage were the best man and the maid of hourner, friends of my parents.

I was lucky to have found an 1877 double wedding in respect of brother and sister, the respective couples acted as witnesses. It was a real bonus to get the certificates. Bob.

I learned to look more carefully at witnesses details when one surname vaguely rang a bell. After lots of searching I found him lodging with the groom's aunt and uncle 10 years earlier. I then discovered that he later married the female witness (groom's sister) What I will never know is why this young chap from Kent was lodging in London and whether he was there throughout those 10 years or just kept in touch with his ex landlord over the years.

I have a witness helpfully described as the brides aunt. On a hunch, I looked for the brides parents marriage on the IGI and immediately found it. Seems she was the unmarried sister. However, most of my witnesses seem to be the happy couples fathers, no doubt due to the fact that they seem to all be shotgun weddings!