On 05/08/2013 16:19, Mary Simpson wrote: > Gavin you were correct, they were married in the parish of St Nicholas at 1 King Street, by declaration in front of the bride's mother and sister. The information came from the Statutory Marriage Register through Scotland's People website. The Aberdeen Post Office Directory for 1903-4 gives the occupants of 1 King Street as: Abdn Chamber of Commerce M'Combie & Ewen, advocates The address is a few steps away from the Sheriff Court, and many "Marriages by Declaration" were effected in various lawyers' offices nearby (in the low-numbered addresses of King Street or Union Street). > ... > Forgive my confusion, but I get very muddled with the Scottish churches and regulations, There's no need to. The churches pretty well cease to have any relevance for records of Baptism, Marriage or Death from 1855 when compulsory Civil Registration was introduced. There was a statutory obligation (enforced by fines) to record all such events with the Registrar, so the only useful source of information is going to be ScotlandsPeople. > I was just putting in the point that there are many different reasons for the term Irregular Marriage, Not really. An "irregular marriage" in Scotland was simply one not celebrated by a Minister of Religion. There were precisely 3 forms of such irregular (but perfectly legal) marriages, although the great majority were probably what we have in this case, namely a Marriage by Declaration. Gavin Bell