Hi Neil, I´ve been going through many registers in that part of the world for the same period and missing entries for several years is not uncommon. I´ve put it down to the fact that the incumbent just couldn´t be bothered. Looking carefully at the registers it is fairly obvious from the entries that they were entered into the register once every so often either from memory or from scraps of papers so there could easily be several missing entries even when the registers appear to have been kept up. One entry in the Harwich records written by the new incumbent says that there were no entries made for about 30 years. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that register of 300 - 500 years old have survived at all. Regards, Diane

Or the minister was too drunk to keep records as happened in a parish I was interested in. Pam in Brisbane Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diane Wynne" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 10:59 PM Subject: Re: [Ess] Missing marriages in Dedham Hi Neil, I´ve been going through many registers in that part of the world for the same period and missing entries for several years is not uncommon. I´ve put it down to the fact that the incumbent just couldn´t be bothered. Looking carefully at the registers it is fairly obvious from the entries that they were entered into the register once every so often either from memory or from scraps of papers so there could easily be several missing entries even when the registers appear to have been kept up. One entry in the Harwich records written by the new incumbent says that there were no entries made for about 30 years. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that register of 300 - 500 years old have survived at all. Regards, Diane