Found a marriage ... but I haven't!

[Wendus]

For ages I've been looking for a particular marriage, and at last found mention of it on the LDS website. The only source given for the information was a Batch number of I033463. Armed with the knowledge of the exact date of the marriage, I tried to find it in the England & Wales marriage index, but it doesn't appear to be there! Try as I might, I can't find it anywhere else, and so cannot get a reference number for the certificate.

I wonder if anyone out there can help?
The marriage was between Emma Wright and Robert Dadd, and took place in Lambeth, Surrey, on 6th March 1859.

I'd be really grateful for any help or advice.

Many thanks.

Wendy

[Peter Goodey]

I'm afraid I've never come across anyone who understands IGI "I" batches. LDS don't understand them, or if they do they're not saying.

Why not ask LDS? If they get enough queries perhaps they'll come clean.

If you look through that batch, some marriages are in the GRO index but not the one you want!

If you're reasonably certain that Lambeth is right you could try the local register office and see if you get the brush off.

Or in desperation, try ordering a 3 year search fom GRO.

If we knew what "I" batches are, you might be able to try a parish register.

[Wendus]

Thanks for your reply Peter, and yes, everything really is very confusing!

I've sent an e-mail to Southwark local studies department, to see if they can shed any light on things, but I'm not too optimistic at the moment.

Can you think of any explanation as to how the record was obviously accessed by the LDS, yet doesn't appear in the England & Wales index? Could it be that the couple were married somewhere other than in a church? I doubt that it would've been in a Register Office because the records would be available, but what about a Chapel?

I spoke to someone in our local Family History Centre, and he didn't sound too hopeful about the people in Salt Lake City having any answers re the batch number or the source. Really inspires confidence, doesn't it!

I'll let you know if I get any further with this puzzle.

Thanks again for your interest.

Wendy

[Wendus]

Should have added this to my last message:

In case there was a typing error during the transcription, I've also tried looking for this marriage in other possible date combinations. I know for a fact it couldn't be 1869. I've tried Mar 1858, May 1859 and May 1858, still with no luck. It couldn't have been in the 1840s as both parties would've been way too young.

The search continues!

[Mutley]

Wendy,
I looked for your couple on the complete BMD and you are right they are not there.
I then read the help bit in Family search and it said you can type in the number in the catalogue and it will take you to where the records are kept. I had several attempts but finally came to a page that said:

Burnt deed books [transcripts] 1778-1863 General index to deeds
The original deed books were badly damaged by fire during the Civil War. These deed books are titled "Burnt deed books" and were re-recorded (transcribed) from the original books in 1884. The dates listed here are the original date of recording.

Microfilm of original records at the Rockingham County Courthouse in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Below is the link but I am not sure if it will take you there. Try it.
https://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Libr...&columns=*,0,0

What on earth this has to do with Lambeth I have no idea unless the batch number and the film number are two completely different things
Mutley.

[Mythology]

Assuming that the LDS have not had a funny five minutes and thrown a load of speculative entries into a genuine batch, this appears to be even more of a mess than most of the GRO index.

I don't have an answer for you, Mutley, but I *suspect* that you might be on the right track with the chapel suggestion - or chapels, plural, maybe - and that somebody dropped a load of loose papers on the floor, mixed them up and got muddled as to which ones they'd copied and which they hadn't!

This will be a long one in bits - bear with me.

(Edit - and don't bother reading it, 'cos Wendus got the answer part way through me pasting bits in!)

[Mythology]

Now, I started by trying to establish which GRO page numbers we should be looking at, the theory being that as yours is 6 March 1859, if I extracted all marriages in the first fortnight of March from that batch, we could look at the page numbers for those and see what, if anything, we could deduce.

It was immediately obvious that there are only two dates in the first fortnight of March - the 6th and the 13th. On checking, the previous date is 27 February.
So, consulting the calendar, all these marriages took place on a Sunday.

I extracted the 27 February ones too, tried to put page numbers to them, and found that others outside this date range cropped up on the same pages. This is what I ended up with starting from page 485, this being (with one exception that I will note in the "missing" list later) the first page on which any of the 27 February, 6 March and 13 March marriages appears.

[Mythology]

485 - 20 Feb John Winger & Maria Gubby
485 - 27 Feb John James Williams & Eliza Ann Lockyer
486 - 27 Feb George Ambrose Canler (Canter) & Isabella Kilbey
486 - 27 Feb George Dunbar & Mary Jones
487 - 20 Feb John Bullions & Sarah Sophia Gill
487 - 27 Feb James Laws & Mary Ann Hicks
488 - 30 Jan George Andrews & Letitia Stammers
488 - 20 Feb George Shore & Eliza Mary Bourn
489 - 20 Feb David Perkins & Elizabeth McDonald
(489 - date unknown, Thomas Homan & Sarah Richardson not in IGI batch)
490 - 06 Feb George Elsley & Sarah Athawes Copperthwait
490 - 27 Feb Edward Johnson & Salome Hurren Roan
491 - 16 Jan John Henry Lee & Martha McLean
491 - 27 Feb William Strong & Emma Lynch
(more to come)

[Mythology]

492 - 20 Feb Thomas Charles Leigh & Mary Ann Lambert
492 - 27 Feb Lawrence Penton & Emily Ann Siller
493 - 02 Jan Edward Godfrey & Elizabeth Rudduck
493 - 06 Mar Henry John Cragg & Mary Ann Nicholson
494 - 06 Mar James Richard Caroline & Mary Ann Condron
494 - 06 Mar Joseph Pritchard & Catherine Shean
495 - 06 Mar George Purvey & Sarah Mitchell
495 - 06 Mar Charles Wagland & Sarah Emily Burton
496 - 27 Feb George Osborne & Phillis White
496 - 06 Mar James White & Harriet Finch
497 - 13 Feb John Matthews & Eleanor Wightman
497 - 27 Feb John Quincey & Ellen Quinn
498 - 06 Mar Robert Harris & Elizabeth Bates
498 - 06 Mar Robert Nixon & Sarah Atkinson Garnett
(more to come)

[Mythology]

499 - 06 Mar Octavius Spedding Thomas & Ann Bownes
499 - 06 Mar William Woodrow & Maria Baynham
500 - 20 Feb James Bairnsfather & Ann Barnett
500 - 20 Feb James George Walker & Fanny Isabella Howard
501 - 20 Feb William Calcot Knell & Maria Church
501 - 06 Mar William John Barnaby & Susannah Groves
502 - 20 Feb William John Jackson & Elizabeth Honour
502 - 27 Feb William Henry Cowley & Eliza Frances Jarman
503 - 27 Feb Richard Elam & Matilda Pratt
503 - 06 Mar William Charles Gray & Ellen Creed
504 - 27 Feb William Edmunds & Elizabeth Bayley
504 - 13 Mar William Garling & Jane Coulman
505 - 06 Mar Charles Lewis & Harriet Apthorp
505 - 06 Mar Alexander Thomas Norvell & Eliza Lawton
(more to come)