Help reading marriage certificate

[kerryb]

Hi can anybody help me read the first name of this father of the bridegroom?  I have puzzled over it for days now! 

kerryb

[Little Nell]

It could be Corliss. 

There is a death of a Corlis Baldwin recorded on FreeBMD in Bloomsbury in Jun 1844.  (Although I do realise that it is a marriage certificate you are looking at.)

Nell

[kerryb]

Nell

Thank you for that, the Corlis Baldwin you found is not this one as the marriage cert is for 1852 and is in Bethnal Green but at least it proved it must have been a name (as strange as Corlis is!) 

I shall start searching on that name and see if I come up with anything.

Thank you

Kerryb

[tarajobrien]

Hi Kerryb

the death in 1844 of Corlis Baldwin could be the same as the Corlis Baldwin on your marriage certificate - both places are in the london area and not all marriage certificates state that the father was deceased at the time of the marriage.
i have a few marriage certificates that don't state if the father was deceased or not and i know in one case that the father died 15 years earlier. 

Tara

[chewbaccy]

Hi,
Could the name be Corlefs it looks to me like that..Sorry can't be of more help......Brian..

[Bx2]

Hi Kerry,

I am pretty sure that it's 'Corless'.

In days of yore, two of the letter 's' together were often written as 'f' followed by 's'. i.e. Corlefs. I have come across this combination of letters before.

It's a very unusual name, however, and I'd be curious to know it's origin.

Good luck,

B

[JAP]

The name is clearly Corless.

And I too have had the experience of a marriage certificate not listing the father as deceased though I know for sure that he was.  The Registrar/Minister can only enter the information which he is given.

The forename Corless (or variant) is likely to be a surname used as a forename.

The surname Corless (and variants) is not uncommon.  If, in the IGI on FamilySearch, you enter Corless in the last name box, select British Isles as the region, and tick exact spelling, you will find heaps!

Incidentally, that way of representing the first 's' of 'ss' is not an f.  It was a very common usage and is most definitely an 's'.  Admittedly, it can look at first glance like an 'f' (or sometimes like a 'p')  Unfortunately, people often wrongly represent it in print or typescript as 'fs' (or sometimes as 'ps'); this is misleading - it should be shown as 'ss'.  This is rather like another wrong usage namely the twee Ye Olde Tea Shoppe etc.  That 'Y' is wrong; there was a letter called a thorn which is no longer in use, it looked a bit like a 'y' but its sound was 'th' and it should be transcribed as 'th'.  Another example is the use of 'ff' which was an old way of writing capital 'F' - 'ff' should be transcribed as 'F'.

Thus endeth the sermon!

Judy

[kerryb]

Thank you all very much for your help.  Tara I had the same thought in the middle of the night - perhaps that could be my Corless and as you say he was deceased by the time of the marriage but not entered as deceased on the cert.  I will order the cert and find out.

It takes a bit of time to get used to the writing on these certs doesn't it, it almost makes our writing today really boring!  (That should start a debate!)

If I find out the origin I let you all know.

Again thank you rootchatters for your assistance.

kerryb

[lizdb]

Ancestry .co  comes up with a few Corless and Corliss Baldwins (I keyed in Corl*s*, to cover all spellings) but most seem to come from Cork, Ireland. You may like to follow these up - sorry I have no crdits on Ancestry at present.