Just popping into Buckinghamshire to get married

While this site concentrates on Hertfordshire it is important to remember that, with the exception of parts of the rivers Lea and Stort, the county has no significant natural boundaries. Typically the county boundaries were based on tracks and hedgerows which formed the boundaries of Saxon estates over a thousand years ago.  Before the boundary was rationalised Ashridge House (centre of this map) was half in Hertfordshire and half in Buckinghamshire. 

From Cary's 1811 map of Hertfordshire

Most of the narrow finger of Buckinghamshire that runs down to Nettleden is part of the parish of Pitstone, Bucks, although some is actually a detached part of the parish of Ivinghoe, Bucks. Needless to say many of the people who lived in Nettledon preferred going to the nearby church of Great Gaddesdon, Hertfordshire.

What this means is that if you are to take researching your ancestors seriously you must remember that in some cases, when your ancestor crosses the county boundary to get married, his bride-to-be will be living in the house next door. So can you answer the question below the fold:

Why did James and Ann marry on Christmas Day?

One of the joys of family history research is that when you answer one question several new questions immediately present themselves.

Last October I gave Carolyn some advice about the Ashby/Sherman family of Aldbury and Northchurch (part of Berkhamsted) and she has now sent me details of the marriage certificate. It appears that, having already got quite a large family they decided it was about time they got married. Obviously there would be people around who would be concerned about the souls of this couple who were "living in sin." Was a Christmas Day marriage - perhaps involving other wayward couples - part of a recruitment drive by the local Baptist Minister to enlarge his congregation? While I have not done so, it might be worth looking at adjacent entries in the Chapel register to see if others were married at the same time.  Were the earlier children already baptised prior to the wedding - perhaps by the Church of England - perhaps at Aldbury? For full details of the research so far see Ashby/Sherman, Aldbury 1840/1851.

Mardlebury Pond Datchworth

Mardlebury Pond, Datchworth
Post card by E. Ashby, Welwyn, circa 1905

Ashby/Sherman - A problem marriage from Aldbury

I often get people writing in who have assumed that that the names given in the census returns are the same as the names on the relevant birth certificates. Carolyn wrote in saying she had details of her ancestors from the 1851 and 1861 censuses, the oldest child being Elizabeth Ashby, who was born in about 1840. However there was no sign of any marriage her ancestors James and Ann Ashby. A search of online indexes suggests that the couple lived together between 1840 and 1850 - having children every two years, eventually marrying in 1850. Children born before the marriage were registered as Sherman - but used the name Ashby in the 1851 census. Carolyn will need to purchase some certificates to confirm the story. It is possible that initially James was separated from and earlier wife, and only married Ann after his first wife died  so it will be interesting to see if James was described as a widower at the time of the 1859 marriage.

For full details see ASHBY / SHERMAN, Aldbury, 1840-1851