Genealogy Chat

The witnesses at the various marriages are all different, for marriage 3 they appear to be relatives with the same last name, but that said, they are people who could be related to more than one of the people with the same first name.

Who witnessed marriage 3?

Was it someone from the family of the known groom from the other marriages?

Maybe the registrar or priest assumed they couldn't read or write so said make your mark !!

The person could think ok that's what is needed and do the x

Folks may not have known what was needed so went along with what was asked of them

I have collected the signature of all the main line males in my family from 1900 back to 1600

They could all read and write, but until 1850 came from villages where there was always a school.

I think also they were mostly Presbyterians, so they read the English bible at home.

I was common therefore for even the semi skilled to be able to read,, sometimes the writing looks tortured, and strained, but as you have said on one marriage the man signs with a cross, the next a flowing signature!

So I guess it also depends on the clerk/minister, I wondered if sometimes the certificate was completed after the couple had left---especially if there was a few marriages at the same day. Oddly until about 1800 the women also signed too especially on a license. One even adding a handwritten codicil. to her will..

I think it all depended on the registra/ church clerk of the day, and how busy he was..

I have a case like that. My great-grandfather made his mark for his first marriage and signed the register for his second, some 12 years later. While it is possible for him to have learnt to write his name in that time, he was in fact from an educated family, ran his own business and wrote his own Will.

For a long time I thought I had the wrong wife, but a cousin and I discussed this at great length, and we eventually concluded that he had pretended to be illiterate, because his bride was, to save her embarrassment.

We will probably never know the truth. :-S

I am hoping to get feedback on whether others have found instances where there is variation in whether the same person signed a marriage or "made their mark". I have a case where a man appears to have been married 4 times, his first 3 wives having died. The marriage register for marriages 1, 2 & 4 have him sigining (the signatures match), but marriage 3 has only a mark. Marriages 1, 2 & 3 are all in the same parish, but not all the same clergyman. The dates of marriages 1,2,& 3 all fit with the death of the previous wife in one year, and a new marriage the following year. I am wary about attributing marriage 3 to the man becuase of the mark rather than signature and the fact that he is not the only person of that name around at that time. There are no baptisms for the couple, which would fit with the age of the man and the age at burial for the woman. The marriages span the period 1789 - 1835, and the third marriage does show the man as a widower.
I am wondering whether for marriage 3 he was simply asked to make his mark, rather than asked to sign? Any thoughts would be appreciated.