On 27 Jan 2008 at 23:39, Walter Morgan wrote: > I googled the term "Esquire" that was on a Marriage Certificate from 1906. > I came up with a term denoting social status. Does this mean of noble > birth or just meaning wealthy and land owner? > If it is 20thC, it is starting to be about pretensions, so it may just be a claim. It would declare at least that they are not directly of a title, though it may indicate that they have some level of title in a few past generations. Wikipedia covers the topic reasonably well (too long to replicate) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squire It would also be a bit of an indicator that you should check for a probate for themselves and parents. Whether they are pretensions or not, they probably a good indicator of a will having been written, and a later probate if there was sufficient value. Regards, Andrew