I am unable to find a marriage record for my great great grandparents
QMy great great grandmother Louisa Letts was married to George Letts (1841-1919) and had two children: Henry (born 1897) and George, my great grandfather (born 1902). She was born in Marylebone, Middlesex, in either 1861 or 1865.
On the 1891 census, George Letts was married to an Ann and married Louisa in 1895, according to the 1911 census. However, I can find no marriage record. My great grandfather’s birth certificate shows she was Louisa Letts, late Young, formerly Lewis, so she must have been married previously. Can you help?
Susan Jenkins, by email
AIn the London marriages on Ancestry.co.uk, I was able to find the marriage of a Louisa Lewis and a James Winter Young in St Peter’s, Battersea, on 17 February 1889. According to the marriage record, Louisa was 30 years old and her father was Robert Lewis, a coal porter.
Ancestry also has a record of a Louisa Lewis in the parish of Paddington who was baptised on 2 January 1859 (and born on 4 December 1857).
Her parents are shown as Robert (a coal porter) and Ann Lewis, whose address was in Dudley Street.
The 1861 census lists the Lewis family at 13 Dudley Street, Paddington. Robert (49) is shown working as a coal porter from Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire, while Ann (46) comes from the City of London. They have three sons and three daughters, including three-year-old Louisa, who was born in Marylebone.
I could find no marriage for George and Louisa, but in the civil registration index I did find an entry for the marriage of George Letts and Ann Bailey in the Strand registration district in the December quarter of 1863. FamilySearch’s England
Marriages index has an entry showing that this marriage took place on 14 December 1863 at St Anne’s, Soho. Findmypast.co.uk have images of marriages at St Anne’s, but up to 1837 only.
There is also an entry in the civil registration deaths index for an Ann Letts in the March quarter of 1898. Her age is given as 80, which ties in reasonably well with the age of George’s wife Ann in the censuses for 1871 (45), 1881 (60) and 1891 (70).
If this Ann is George’s wife, then he couldn’t have married Louisa in 1895 (except bigamously), and may not have married her at all.
You will need to send for the certificates for the marriage and death, however, to check that they do indeed relate to your Letts family.