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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 14:17 BST (UK)

Title: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 14:17 BST (UK)
Hi, whilst looking at a marriage entry for 1879 I noticed that bride and groom were recorded as being at same address in Marshall Street Birmingham. Looking forward and back on the website I saw this was the situation for a lot of other couples though the streets varied. Could it be that there were lodging houses on these streets where the couples stayed prior to their wedding ? The groom of the couple I was researching lived locally.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: KGarrad on Sunday 04 August 24 14:32 BST (UK)
Probably a simpler answer?
Banns had to be called at both the bride's parish and the groom's parish.
Much easier to live at the same address for the requisite period of time, and just use the one parish.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 15:24 BST (UK)
Thanks for that idea,though I would have thought 2 Banns cheaper than 1 or 2 rooms at a lodging house ,as residence would be required for some weeks ?
I have tried the Birmingham History Forum to ask for local knowledge but my log in details won’t work anymore.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Milliepede on Sunday 04 August 24 15:27 BST (UK)
Could they be at a relatives house rather than a lodging house? 

If you have the number in Marshall Street you could look for it in 1881 to see who was living there.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 15:34 BST (UK)
Good thought about 1881. I looked back through the register of marriages and other couples stayed on that same street prior to marriage. I think i know how to search on Ancestry for a street on 1881
Many thanks for responses.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Milliepede on Sunday 04 August 24 15:36 BST (UK)
It might confirm if indeed it was a lodging house - what number was it?
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 15:40 BST (UK)
It simply records “Marshall Street”
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Milliepede on Sunday 04 August 24 15:43 BST (UK)
Not so helpful then.  Am looking at it now and can't immediately see any lodging houses but families may have taken lodgers in to make ends meet.

You could look for the surname of the groom if he was a local to see if any of his relatives were in that street.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Sunday 04 August 24 15:45 BST (UK)
His family ,Mother ( father deceased) was living on Eyre Street. His bride’s family were in hereford.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: StevenG on Monday 05 August 24 18:17 BST (UK)
I've seen any number of these while doing my huge one-place study, and it is almost invariably the family home of one of the parties to the marriage.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Maygladwin on Monday 05 August 24 18:27 BST (UK)
Thanks I will check on the 1881
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Jebber on Monday 05 August 24 20:06 BST (UK)
Sometimes they simple left a suitcase at an address just to claim they were living there. People were taken at their word, nobody checked the information was correct, especially in highly populated places. It is the same with stating their status as widowed on remarriage. It was very easy to be economical with the truth.

I remember coming across a couple who separated and the husband simply remarried as a widower and set up home with the new with the “new” wife in the next street to where his legal wife was living.
Title: Re: Marriages mid 19c
Post by: Andrew Tarr on Monday 05 August 24 23:08 BST (UK)
Sometimes they simply left a suitcase at an address just to claim they were living there.
We did that when we married in 1963  :D My wife didn't want to get married in her parish church, which happened to be a cathedral  8).