A woman lie about her age.... now that's a good one !!!! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Firebird" <sparrer@gmail.com> To: "Rootsweb Essex" <essex-uk@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 10:41 AM Subject: Re: [Ess] Ages on marriage certificates > Jan R wrote: > >> Firebird, I think you're probably right that she was lying about being >> "of full age" to avoid having to get her father's consent -- they had >> a baby about 7 months later. They did get married in the village where >> both of them appear to have been born, so you'd think someone would have >> known she wasn't really over 21! None of the witnesses had either of the >> family surnames, so I guess their families weren't at the wedding. > > There was no obligation for family members to be witnesses. They > could have been friends of the couple or one of them could be the > parish clerk or other church official but you'd only be able to tell > if one witness was the parish clerk by looking at the parish register. > There's no way of telling who was or was not at the wedding now - > which is a shame. I image it could be quite interesting to know who'd > been there. > > If she was only a bit under 21, then it may well have been forgotten > that she was, plus with a baby on the way (nothing unusual in that by > the way) it might have been deemed expedient to allow the marriage to > go ahead before it was obvious. If they'd been made to wait then the > girl could have ended up with a bad reputation and the marriage > stopped completely because she wasn't "good enough" for the boy. > Better a blind eye than a bad reputation :)) > >> For the 1841 census, about 18 months after the marriage, they both gave >> their ages as 20 years (which would make them both about 18 when they >> married). > > Don't forget the ages were rounded down for the 1841 census which > would put both of them between 20 and 24. It's the only census that > does that. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: Essex-UK-admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ESSEX-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >