Q&A
Our experts tackle readers’ most frustrating brick walls
QWhy would a couple, Joseph Collins and Catherine Johnson, have two marriage certificates, 14 years apart, in the same church – St Bartholomew’s, Edgbaston, Birmingham? There is no evidence of a divorce or that it is a blessing. It is definitely the same couple as the signatures are exactly the same.
Raymond Fowler
AThere are many reasons why a couple might go through two marriage ceremonies. Working out the most likely explanation in any given case is a matter of evaluating the facts against what we know about different types of remarriage. We can quickly rule out the second ceremony being the public affirmation of an earlier, more private marriage in light of the time that elapsed between the ceremonies and because both of them took place in the same church.
One explanation could be that some problem had been discovered casting doubt on the validity of the first ceremony. Given that St Bartholomew’s was the parish church, it’s hard to envisage any problems with the marriage’s location or even with who conducted it – bogus vicars were exceedingly rare! There were, however, quite a few highprofile cases around this time that underlined the importance of banns being called in the correct names. If the banns book for the church is available, I would advise checking that banns were called in the same names as recorded on the marriage certificate. While calling banns in the wrong name did not necessarily invalidate a marriage, some couples did want to make absolutely sure that they were validly married.
A further possible explanation is that Joseph Collins’ first wife was still alive at the time of his first marriage to Catherine. It’s worth remembering that anyone seeking to remarry after their first spouse had died would not have needed to produce a death certificate. There were plenty of cases in which people remarried genuinely believing their first spouse was dead, only to discover at a later date that their marriage was in fact void because their first spouse was still alive on the day of the wedding. If there is nothing to suggest any problem with the formalities surrounding the first ceremony, it would be worthwhile making doubly sure of when and where Joseph’s first wife died.
Rebecca Probert