>qtr 1898 Wycombe Vol 3a page 1331 and ordered the marriage certificate. > >Chiltern office have said that they are unable to trace the marriage and >need to pay £11 to order the certificate from Southport. > >I believe that the marriage probably took place in Little Missenden as that >is where the bride's father died in 1892 and where her mother died in 1899. >Why would there be no trace of it at High Wycombe? Because local registration offices do not have a consolidated index but separate files for every church,and chapel (and RO itself.) If you suggested Little Missenden, and it isn't there, then the staff can't very well try every one of the other 200 places, in hopes. Probably she left home, went into service, met her husband wherever that was, and married him at some convenient place nearby. You can order the certificate on line from ONS for 7 pounds nowadays, though, using crdit card and quoting the full reference you have given. The 11 pound price is only if you lack the full reference. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society