Were they Baptist?

[Ms Tarfgi]

My g grandparents, both widowed, were married in a Registry Office in Briton Ferry in 1855. I have always assumed that they were Baptist because one daughter married a Baptist minister and both daughters were pillars of the local Welsh Baptist chapel. Were widow/ers not allowed to marry in chapel?

Both g grandparents were originally married in an Anglican church in 1836 and 1847 respectively. I don't know when marriage in the Established Church stopped being obligatory. My G grandfather's daughter from his first marriage also got married in a registry office.

Having described them as Baptists on another thread, I have started wondering if this is an incorrect assumption made right at the start of my researches about ten years ago

[Colin Moretti]

Only Established churches were automatically licensed for marriages when civil registration was introduced in 1837 and the requirement to marry in a CoE church ended; all others (eg Baptists, Roman Catholics, etc) had to pay to be licensed and had to have the District Registrar in to complete the legal formalities with the marriage register. Many smaller churches didn't bother to take out a licence although they may have conducted a religious (but not legally recognised) ceremony.

Colin

[sindylin]

Baptists also don't beleive in child baptisms, so if none of them were baptised as children you could assume that they were baptsits.

[Colin Moretti]

... so if none of them were baptised as children you could assume that they were baptsits.

Or that you have just not found the baptism yet.

There have been a number of threads in the past that referred to baptisms some distance from the home parish. My own baptism is a case in point, I was done in a church close to where my maternal grandmother lived as she was too ill to travel to the town where I was born.

Colin

[Ms Tarfgi]

Thanks both.

It sounds as if the second marriage of my g grandparents was held in a registry office because they had a chapel marriage, but it wasn't licensed for marriages. Likewise the daughter. That's good I don't like loose ends.

I've not found any baptisms for any of my Pembrokeshire relatives either as children or as adults - not on the IGI or on a CD I have of Pembs non-conformist records. Unless they were baptised out of the county, which seems unlikely, I will just have to hope they'll turn up some day when I was least expecting them. I might try looking at the neighbouring county records though.

Thanks again for the useful information.

Molly

[Deebee]

Hi
I was married in a Methodist Chapel 46 years ago and as this was a small Chapel (Only been 3 weddings there in my lifetime ) we had to have a Registrar present at the wedding . We had to notify the local Register Office and our intended marriage was advertised there . We did not have to have Banns called in the Chapel . Some of my family are Baptists and they do not Christen Children this is left until they are old enough to understand the meaning of joining the chapel and are then Baptised .

[Ms Tarfgi]

Thanks Deebee, that seems to confirm, what I've already found out. It's likely that my g grandparents were married in a small chapel, without a registrar and then married in a Registry Office for the legally recognised wedding.