New additions and a terrifying fact

I’ve added a link to the ‘Useful Websites’ page – www.west-bromwich-photos.co.uk – old photographs of West Bromwich.

The page ‘Birth, Marriage, Death’ has been amended, as I forgot to include a vital piece of information (self administered slapped wrist) – until 1929 the minimum age for marriage was 12 for a girl or 14 for a boy.  Terrifying, but true.  So another reason that you may not be able to find a marriage is that one – or both – of the parties were very young indeed.

I’ve never found a marriage this young in my own tree, but there are plenty where the bride was 15. 

And the further you go back in history, the more often you find ‘child brides’.  Margaret Beaufort, mother of the future Henry VII, was a married woman of 12 when her son was born.

Food for thought.