Why can’t I find Alexander’s marriage?

QI am trying to find the marriage record of Alexander Murray, who was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1854. He married Mary Jane Dobinson in London between 1881 and 1888. Mary Jane, a seamstress, was born in 1860 in St George in the East, London. In 1888, on his daughter Alice’s birth certificate, Alexander was a tailor living at 22 Falcon Grove, London.

Harry Morris

AThe most common reason for not being able to find a marriage is a misspelling. The vicar could have misheard the spelling of either name, and mistakes can creep in during transcription: on one site, Alexander is transcribed as Alexandra! It’s important to check all of the different genealogy sources, including FreeBMD ( freebmd.org.uk).

With the surnames Murray and Dobinson, there are numerous possible spellings, so you need to make sure you’ve ticked the surname variants box. You can also use a wildcard (*) in your search – for example, Mu* or *obin*. Also, either Alexander or Mary could have married under a middle name; and check after 1888 in case the marriage took place following the birth of Alice or later children.

If you are sure that the couple married in the capital, browse the London Metropolitan Archives’ collection of parish registers on ancestry.co.uk. This will allow you to read the marriage register pages, parish by parish.

Another possibility is that this was Mary Jane’s second marriage and she could have married under her surname as a widow

(it’s likely she would have given her maiden name on Alice’s birth certificate) – search for marriages for Mary Dobinsons and crosscheck their married names with marriage entries for Alexander. Finally, don’t rule out the possibility that either Alexander or Mary Jane were already married, so they could not marry again without committing bigamy.

Michelle Higgs