On 05/08/2013 13:16, Mary Simpson wrote: > Thank you Gavin for more information regarding non Kirk of Scotland marriages, although it has left me even more confused. > > The couple were both from Old Deer ( groom ) and Fraserburgh ( bride ) and actually married in St Nicholas, Aberdeen St Nicholas Kirk or St Nicholas Parish? If it was St Nicholas Kirk then the Minister's certificate that he had married them ought to have satisfied the Registrar. > and then with or before the Sheriff in King St., Aberdeen. They were not *married* "with or before the Sheriff" - at most he would have given his opinion that they had (previously to appearing before him) undergone some sort of valid marriage. > They were both Episcopalian, and the bride's father's family were also from Old Deer, so I don't know why they didn't marry in St Margaret's in Aberdeen or back in Fraserburgh or Old Deer. They both disappear afterwards - I think that they must have emigrated but don't know where to. They don't appear on the 1901 or 1911 Scottish or English / Welsh census. The fact that they married, not at home, but in the relative anonymity of the big city, together with their subsequent disappearance, may reflect parental disapproval. Perhaps one of the fathers, waving a big stick, had gone to the Sheriff seeking to have the marriage annulled. What are your sources for the information, and what (exactly) do they say? Gavin Bell

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. By 1904 the bride and her mother and sister had moved back to her late father's birthplace, the parish of Old Deer from Fraserburgh, and her mother died in Mintlaw in 1919. The groom was quite a lot older than the bride, 43 to 24 and he was a butler at Aden House. She was a nurse, and as her mother & sister were witnesses at the wedding, I can't imagine that parental disapproval was involved. His father, a farmer, was dead by 1904. As to their disappearance, perhaps he was off butling on distant shores …. Forgive my confusion, but I get very muddled with the Scottish churches and regulations, I was just putting in the point that there are many different reasons for the term Irregular Marriage, and it doesn't always mean what you might first think it to mean. But thank you Gavin, for explaining all the differences, Mary On 5 Aug 2013, at 14:54, Gavin Bell <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05/08/2013 13:16, Mary Simpson wrote: >> Thank you Gavin for more information regarding non Kirk of Scotland marriages, although it has left me even more confused. >> >> The couple were both from Old Deer ( groom ) and Fraserburgh ( bride ) and actually married in St Nicholas, Aberdeen > > St Nicholas Kirk or St Nicholas Parish? If it was St Nicholas Kirk then > the Minister's certificate that he had married them ought to have > satisfied the Registrar. > >> and then with or before the Sheriff in King St., Aberdeen. > > They were not *married* "with or before the Sheriff" - at most he would > have given his opinion that they had (previously to appearing before > him) undergone some sort of valid marriage. > > >> They were both Episcopalian, and the bride's father's family were also from Old Deer, so I don't know why they didn't marry in St Margaret's in Aberdeen or back in Fraserburgh or Old Deer. They both disappear afterwards - I think that they must have emigrated but don't know where to. They don't appear on the 1901 or 1911 Scottish or English / Welsh census. > > The fact that they married, not at home, but in the relative anonymity > of the big city, together with their subsequent disappearance, may > reflect parental disapproval. Perhaps one of the fathers, waving a big > stick, had gone to the Sheriff seeking to have the marriage annulled. > > What are your sources for the information, and what (exactly) do they say? > > > Gavin Bell > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message