All the pr's I have read have had banns very, very, clearly and very dilberately written. I am thankful for that! Surely we have to have a little faith and assume that the banns were read. Bearing in mind that most of our ancestors were iliterate and who knows whether they actually went to church on the Sundays the banns were read. Also, given the fact that most of our ancestors were ag/labs and probably worked on those Sundays they probably didn't know what banns were!. There is always the parish chest and minutes to read from some church wardens accounts. Although they don't say who's banns were read I have read in the St Margaret's Barking Wardens/Parish chest minutes that "banns were read" in some of these early records. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Firebird" <sparrer@gmail.com> To: "Rootsweb Essex" <essex-uk@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 10:49 AM Subject: Re: [Ess] Ages on marriage certificates > podnsod wrote: >> I don't consider anyone in the age range of 18- 21 to be minors. > > Legally they still were, just as anyone under the age of 18 is legally > a minor these days. > > Maturity is, of course, a different matter. I've known a 5 year old > who are more mature than a so called adult of 43!! I also know a 62 > year old who still uses baby talk and has done for at least the last > 10 years. > >> Interestingly enough both marriages were with banns so it might be >> interesting to check the pr's and see if they in fact posted banns. >> The marriage certificate should tell you that. > > If the marriage cert says by banns, the parish register will say the > same thing but you won't necessarily get the dates. Even if you did, > how could you be sure the banns had really been read on those dates? > > Depending on the period, some registers did allow space for the dates > of the reading of the banns. Some banns registers still exist but > IME, most times the banns aren't recorded and the banns certs are > given to the bride and/or groom so haven't survived. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > 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