Thankyou Betty , Never thought about it but my mother has 3 witnesses to her marriage in Victoria Australia . 2 were her cousins and one was her husbands sister , I suppose Dad wanted to even up the witnesses so she signed her name twice as big as the others . Laurie Still looking for my Ryans and Tobins of Bansha -----Original Message----- From: cotipperary-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:cotipperary-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Betty Gough via Sent: Sunday, 12 July 2015 9:00 PM To: cotipperary@rootsweb.com Subject: [COTIPPERARY] Witnesses at marriages...... Tom wondered about seeing three witnesses at some marriages in the past. Personally, I don't know. Never heard of any particular reason. I imagine the groom and bride wanted more than the usual two witnesses. The third person was probably a relative or friend. Likewise, at Baptism, sponsors were usually two but sometimes only one. I have seen three names, but seldom. Some entries for marriage have names of witnesses that are different to the bride and groom. In those cases one or both may have been an only child. Another reason being that the siblings of one or both have already emigrated. Yet another reason being that the couple are getting married without the approval of family. Betty When replying to a message in the digest please do two things: 1. Change the 'Subject' to that of the message you are replying to. 2. Delete all the messages above and below the one you are concerned with. Thank You. All of the past messages of this list can be found in the Archives at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=cotipperary ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COTIPPERARY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message