"Margaret Garthwaite" <[email protected]> wrote: >Sorry > >Just intended as a comment on the dangers of relying unquestioningly >on the information even in official documents Well that is warning worth listening to. Brian -- Brian Pears (Joint List Admin - NORTHUMBRIA Mailing List)

Maggie and Brian: While not wanting to further fudge the issue, I think I should address two points which have not really been mentioned so far. First, the "RC marriage certificate". Are you sure, Maggie, that this really is a GRO-type marriage certificate or is it just a copy of what was entered into the register of a RC church? RC marriage registers usually include only basic details of the parties, much as C of E ones did before 1837 but with the possibility of the Priest having entered his own comments on the parties, the whole thing being usually in Latin. They must have kept (and perhaps still do) two sets of books, one of their own for "church records" and two of the standard type, for (a) the couple concerned and (b) the registrar. My other comment is the more fundamental one, as far as the initial query is concerned. The question was about "full age" but the discussion has mainly been about "legal age". The two are different things. "Full age" means that the person is in law an adult. For the period we are considering that was 21 years. Anyone aged less than 21 would be a "minor", and as such would need permission from their parent (father) or guardian, even if it was legal for them to marry. I agree with Brian, however, that teenagers rarely married. Even the word "minor" tends to mean "aged 20" in almost every case. Geoff Nicholson -----Original Message----- From: Brian Pears <[email protected]> To: northumbria <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:02 Subject: Re: [NMB] 1859 marriaged cert - What is full age? Also inquestaccess query "Margaret Garthwaite" <[email protected]> wrote: >Sorry > >Just intended as a comment on the dangers of relying unquestioningly >on the information even in official documents Well that is warning worth listening to. Brian -- Brian Pears (Joint List Admin - NORTHUMBRIA Mailing List) .. Please remember to snip most of the earlier message before you post any reply...... Thank you! The NORTHUMBRIA FAQ page is located at http://www.bpears.org.uk/NorthumbriaFAQ/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message