Hannah Jackson b1826 /George Phelps (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, September 10, 2011, 18:30 (4826 days ago) @ SCATTERBRAIN

I agree entirely that this Marriage Record is correct for "your" Hannah.
However in my honest opinion I see no reason at all why you doubt the 1826 Baptism, especially as MPG has "independently verified" my gut feeling. I feel you are perhaps taking the Marriage Certificate info re Occupation & Age too literally ?.

Re the occupations quoted on the Baptism & Marriage Records, don't forget the Chapel Minister would merely record what he heard, or thought he heard, the father say.
In 1826 father Daniel was a "labourer", this could quite possibly have meant "farm labourer" given the locality. Add another 20odd years to the Marriage and he may well have become, or at least considered himself, a "Farmer". Or maybe the Minister was a "kindly" friend and merely abbreviated "Farm labourer" ?.

Re the ages quoted it's quite normal for them to vary from the truth, especially on Marriage Records, and also on Census Returns in later years. This was an era when precise recording of the passage of time was rare, before the coming of the Railways and scheduled timetables that came with them, never mind standardised Greenwich Mean Time etc. For a farming family seasons and daylight meant far more than actual time of day or dates in the year, plus they were likely to be less well educated so maybe unable to even know. I suggest it quite possible they might have themselves lost track of Hannah's exact age. Even today many ladies like to shave a little off their age, especially on their wedding day, in the 1800s they would often be economical with the truth when asked by a Minister or Census Official. Alternatively, in this case George was "of full age", meaning 21 or over. I'm unsure as to his exact Baptism, but lets assume its about 1820. This could make him younger than "my" Hannah, which sometimes wasn't considered "proper", so perhaps she massaged her age for this reason.

In those days there were no official government departments or databases to check a person's quoted age against previous records unless perhaps serious foulplay was suspected.

The following website is, I think, well-worth reading in respect to interpreting old BMD records. This quote re Marriage certificates particularly:

"The next column shows the age at the date of marriage. There are all sorts of problems here. First of all the information is only as accurate as the bride or groom cared to make it - remember that unless the bride or groom appeared to be under the age of consent they were not asked for proof of their age or identity.

There are many instances when the age was "massaged" to make it a little more palatable! Brides who were older than their grooms often "lost" a few years or grooms who were younger "acquired" a few. Some people genuinely wouldn't know precisely how old they were."

see http://www.dixons.clara.co.uk/Certificates/marriages.htm#COL3

I hope this makes sense and helps you.