Just took a double take at the wedding certificate for James Thomas and Ann Jane Merriman that has just arrived on my doormat, and realised that everything that i thought was right is not James's Father is James Thomas, Collier, not Samuel Thomas which is what I had got on my tree. Ha ha ! What fun ! Need to start from scratch now at least the family is still in the FOR.

I have been researching my Forest of Dean family. My 2 x great grandparents were James Thomas B 1851 and Ann Jane Merriman B 1850 they were married on 17th April 1871 I'm looking for any information I can find. I've got their marriage certificate but what's confusing is it says they were married in the registry office westbury on severn. I've also got James parents marriage certificate which is confusing. Samuel Thomas and Eunice Barnard 13th March 1847 at Blakeney Chapel in the district of Westbury union in the county og Gloucester. I didn't think that you could get married at this time in anywhere other than the Church of England? Can anyone e throw any light on this?

Hi Debbie,
As far as I can see the Register Office system was introduced in 1837, so yes your James & Ann could (and did) legally marry at one in 1871.
See links below.

Similarly, so could Samuel & Eunice marry at one in 1847; their entry on the GlosBMD site entry clearly states they married at Westbury Registry Office, but that site only gives the year but not precise date, so don't know whether this was on 13th March ?. The FreeBMD site gives the quarter their marriage was registered, ie Jan/Feb/March 1847, as expected. Perhaps their marriage was "blessed" at Blakeney Baptist Chapel sometime after the Register Office ceremony, or maybe they WERE married at the Chapel, but a Registrar was also present to "legalise" it, hence from a "legal" point of view the official records point to the GRO record rather than the dupicate Chapel record ?

"From 1837, marriages could take place in a local register office, instead of a church. A new type of marriage register was introduced for all marriage ceremonies. The Church of England, Jews and Quakers could conduct and register their own marriage ceremonies. Two registers were completed, one for the church the other for the state. Other denominations (Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians etc) had to apply for their chapels to be licensed to conduct marriages and could only conduct a ceremony there if, in addition to the minister, a Registrar was also present to record the events in a Register Office marriage register. This did not change until 1898."

http://www.owenfamilyhistory.net/civilreg.html

ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Register_Office_for_England_and_Wales

BTW, the Register Office was part of the old Workhouse complex on W-o-S High Street, now demolished, as with so many queries this forum has already covered this general subject, see
http://forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?mode=thread&id=16613

More detail & photos here
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/WestburyOnSevern/

Finally, ref your query regarding your visiting the Forest, if you haven't already done so searching this forum will find several relevant prior threads, covering all aspects of a possible visit. Here's just 2 such threads which may help you.
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=33227
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=41337

atb Jeff