Family Historian User Group

Apologies if this too off-topic, please move the post as necessary.

I think I may have found the marriage for one of my ancestors buried on a half-unindexed page on Ancestry, but I am having trouble deciphering the handwriting and would appreicate any input on how you read it. My ancestor was Matthew Collier (Collyer, Colear, inter alia) and his wife was called, I thought, Grace. Although, if this the marriage entry then perhaps not. The marriage entry is from 5 January 1692/93 in Cirencester (Glos.):
How do you read that? If yu have an ancestry subscription and want to see the whole page to get a better feel for the handwriting, this is from Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813, Cirencester Parish 1637-1799, image 273 of 562. The entry is just past 2/3 of the way down the right hand column.

For comparison, Their eldest son was called Samuel, and he was baptised in Cirencester on 28 June 1694, i.e. 18 months later:
Matthew was baptised in 1674, so his wedding was unlikely to have been very long before the birth of Samuel in 1694 and the family were all living in Cirencester for a couple of generations before and after, so it was unlikely to have been anywhere else. It's proving pretty elusive though - this is perhaps the closest I've come so far.

Peter,
It doesn’t look like groom was Matthew Collier! I think the couple are Matthew Calvert or Calbert & Olive Arrowsmith.
The author’s double l ‘s and t’s of Matthew & Collier in the Christening look fairly obvious, which is not the case with this marriage. I struggled with bride’s surname , but once I realised her surname began with A not C, the rest became a little more obvious.

I agree with Gowermick. The groom's surname looks like Calvert. The second letter is an 'a'. The handwriting distinguishes clearly between the letter 'a' and the letter 'o'. The last letter of the surname is 't' and the penultimate letter is 'r', because it matches the two 'r's in 'Arrowsmith'.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

24 Nov 2021 10:43

I agree with Gowermick. The groom's surname looks like Calvert. The second letter is an 'a'. The handwriting distinguishes clearly between the letter 'a' and the letter 'o'. The last letter of the surname is 't' and the penultimate letter is 'r', because it matches the two 'r's in 'Arrowsmith'.

Lorna gave me a reminder to compare further letters, and I spotted the grooms name seems to be Calvert rather than Calbert, as the 4th letter is v, and seems to match the v in Olive!

You might find Reading Early Handwriting 1500-1700useful. Author: Mark Forrest. Published by the British Association for Local History.