Can you read the names of witnesses?

[Redroger]

Christian name of second witness might begin Ans----- Think you are on the right track about the surname

[Alexander.]

Assuming they married in a church - have you considered checking the parish register (with the original signatures) on the off chance that they are more legible there? I can't make head nor tail of the first names.

Alexander

[MaggiesGD]

Going against the concensus I see the first surname as Weils.  Not sure why anyone would write an exceptionally long S right next to a small one

[Redroger]

Going against the concensus I see the first surname as Weils.  Not sure why anyone would write an exceptionally long S right next to a small one

Because Maggie in that era it was customary to write any s in the beginning or middle of a word in the long S format. One thing that does go in favour of your proposal though is that if the family were German and the name was Weiss, then it would I think more usual to use the German double S at the end of the word, which looks something like a capital B. Perhaps there is someone of Rootschat who can produce these characters as specimens to assist?

[Alexander.]

Wikipedia - Long s - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s

I assume Roger you are referring to the fact that in German Weiss may be written as Weiß

Alexander

[Redroger]

Exactly, but I do not have the keyboard skills to produce the proper character.