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Love knows no age in the Cheshire parish records

How old were your ancestors when they got married? Chances are they were probably in their twenties. While this was very much the norm, a couple of rather unusual marriages in the parish records from our Cheshire collection prove that people continued to marry much later in life.

Daniel Broadbent married Martha Cheetham in Mottram-in-Longendale on 9 March 1780. You can take a look at the record of this marriage below. Alongside the information you would expect to find written in the parish register, the following note has been added:

‘Behold! N.B. A peculiar marriage! Daniel Broadbent was aged twenty-three – Martha Cheetham aged eighty-three’.

Parish register recording the marriage of Daniel Broadbent and Martha Cheetham

Another ‘peculiar marriage’ can be found in the parish registers of St Oswald, Chester. George Harding and Jane Darlington married on 6 May 1776 and a note on the record below informs us that ‘George Harding is in the 105th year of his age and Jane Darlington in her 75th’.

Parish register recording the marriage of George Harding and Jane Darlington

Have you found any similar marriages in your own family tree? Please do leave a comment and let us know how old your ancestors were when they got married!

Over 126,000 new parish baptism and marriage records published

You can now search 126,967 new parish baptism and marriage records for Durham, Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland on findmypast.co.uk

The Northumberland & Durham Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

Further details about these records are as follows:

Search our parish records now to find your ancestors.

Over 22,000 new Dorset parish records published

We have just published 22,989 new parish records for Dorset on findmypast.co.uk: 1,533 baptisms, 8,084 marriages and 13,372 burials.

The Dorset Family History Society provided us with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies.

The table below gives details of each set of records:

Find your Dorset ancestors in our parish records collection.

303,594 new parish records now on findmypast.co.uk

We’ve been busy publishing 303,594 new parish records on findmypast.co.uk to make it even more likely that you’ll find your ancestors in our records. Read on for more details…

271,193 new Devon marriage records added to findmypast.co.uk

Following the 360,000 Devon baptism records recently published on findmypast.co.uk, we’ve just added 271,193 new Devon parish marriage records to the site.

The records cover the years 1754 to 1837 and were provided by the Devon Family History Society.

Add to your family tree by searching our parish marriage records now.

32,401 Calderdale baptism and burial records added to findmypast.co.uk

We’ve also just published 32,401 baptism and burial records for Calderdale on findmypast.co.uk

Here is a breakdown of these records:

Calderdale Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records.

Find your ancestors today by searching our parish baptisms and burials.

Parish records are essential when trying to find your ancestors and you can view records from as far back as 1538 on findmypast.co.uk

The findmypast.co.uk team are committed to regularly adding thousands of records to our parish records collection. We hope you enjoy searching these records.

Over 131,000 Thames-side parish marriage records just published

We have just published 131,052 indexed records from 65,526 Thames-side and Medway marriages on findmypast.co.uk

These records cover Essex, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey for the period 1750 to 1984.

These records are part of a collection licensed from local specialist Rob Cottrell and follow the recent publication of the Thames-side and Medway baptism and burial records.

Occupational records of Thames watermen and lightermen will also go online at findmypast.co.uk to complete the collection.

Find out more about the collection on our Thames-side and Medway records page.

Search our parish marriages to find your Thames and Medway ancestors.

8,000 new Dorset marriage records – read our bizarre finds

We have just added 8,368 new Dorset marriage records to findmypast.co.uk which cover the years 1560 to 1839.

We’ve done some digging around and have found some unusual names in our Dorset parish records collection.

We found a marriage between Martha Loaring and Samuel Single on 14 October 1750 in Bettiscombe, making Martha a married Single:

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The Dorset baptisms also offered some amusing names: here you can see a record for ‘Love Dear Bedloe’ who was baptised on 27 August 1745 in Dorchester:

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We also found a ‘Fruit Carter’ in the Dorset baptisms, who was baptised on 17 May 1807 in Chickerell:

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The Dorset burial records contain a slightly more sinister discovery: an ‘unknown’ person buried on 8 April 1815 in Abbotsbury. The notes state that the unknown person was ‘found on shore’:

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Search for your ancestors in our parish records – and maybe you’ll even make some weird and wonderful discoveries of your own.