On 22/03/2010 22:46, C Bridges wrote: > Thank you Brian. I hadn't thought of this. However, I have both original > (i.e. photocopied) certs and both names are in full. Also the occupations > are mason (James1839) and joiner (Joseph 1846). These occupations seem > incongruent. The fact that both names are in full on the certificate does not mean that they have been in full at every stage in the process. Registers were normally filled in by the vicar/registrar before the ceremony from info on advance notices or banns. Maybe somebody jotted down "Jos" taken from, say, the banns info, on a scrap of paper and then they or someone else misread it as Jas when they filled in the register - and so wrote James rather than Joseph. Why are the occupations "incongruent"? A man of many skills, perhaps, who takes whatever is going at the time, could well have been employed as a mason in 1839 and a joiner in 1846. Having said that, if it were my family and my research, I think I'd be seriously questioning my assumption that the two Johns were the same person. Brian -- Brian Pears (Gateshead, UK) http://www.bpears.org.uk/ Joint List Admin NORTHUMBRIA Genealogy Mailing List GENUKI Northumberland Maintainer