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In the Mouth of Two or More Witnesses

by VAl Atkinson

Article ID: 7, First Published: May 2004

On 10 July 1825 Mary Ann TURNBULL was baptised, daughter of Ann TURNBULL a single woman.

When she married she gave her father’s name as John OSWALD, and one of her wedding witnesses was Elizabeth OSWALD.

These two findings are separated by four years of dogged determined research hampered by tangled surnames and frustration, but the question I’d like to pose now is:

Which parts of a marriage entry do you take the most/least notice of?
I ask because of my habit of ignoring certain things and focusing on others.

I NEVER TOOK ANY NOTICE OF WEDDING WITNESSES.

Now I look at everything before I do anything, take my time, and think and ponder first.

When we think, ponder, and wait awhile, questions in our minds have a fighting chance of being answered,

If you move when you don’t know where to go you can end up lost!

With this in mind, I gloated and rejoiced over the marriage entry (as you do!) and said to myself:

What relation was the witness Elizabeth OSWALD to John OSWALD, and to the bride and groom?
More research found other wedding witnesses: Robert OSWALD 1878 and Sarah Hannah OSWALD 1892. Here was an exciting connection spanning forty years.

I thought to myself: a wedding witness is often a friend/relative of bride or groom and sometimes around the same age, so I started with Sarah Hannah OSWALD, estimated her birth at 1865, and found:

1881 census Sarah H. OSWALD aged 10 (c1871)
1881 census father Robert OSWALD aged 43 (c1838)
TWO OF MY WITNESSES WERE FATHER AND DAUGHTER.

Parish records revealed legions of information about Robert, his siblings and his parents.

Children of Ann TURNBULL (single woman) were:

1825 Mary Ann

1831 Isabella

1832 Ann TURNBULL married John OSWALD (wedding witness Robert TURNBULL)

Children were:

1833 Jane

1835 Elizabeth

1837 Robert

1839 John and on the same day was the burial of John OSWALD aged 32

Then later, a surprise entry found by chance:

1846 Hannah OSWALD daughter of Ann OSWALD widow.

Now I was full circle.

Robert OSWALD and Elizabeth OSWALD were children of John OSWALD and half brother and sister to Mary Ann TURNBULL. Sarah Hannah OSWALD was her niece. All the witnesses were accounted for.

What have I learned from all this?

THE ONLY SILLY QUESTION IS THE ONE YOU DON’T ASK.
BRING WEDDING WITNESSES OUT OF OBSCURITY. THEY SILENTLY TESTIFY TO UNKNOWN FAMILIES.
DON’T BE SURPRISED IF YOU SHED A TEAR FOR A LONG FORGOTTEN DEATH.

Witnesses are the ‘best friends’ of our long dead ancestors, asked along to share in the hope and joy of a special moment.

They serve as a Proclamation to the Family that across the years and centuries, the welding links of families are something that time cannot destroy nor death disrupt.

These are the reasons why:

Finding is a ‘mission’, and we stick to the task.
We want to bring families together and know them as our own.
We’re fixed in our purpose as we research in the face of obstacles and problems.

I have the patience, longsuffering and love unfeigned for my ancestors to take the trouble and make the time to find the answers.

I encourage you to do the same.