Magdalene Craise

Mrge reg. Lincoln County
John K. Black, 25, bachelor, born Scotland, residing St. Catharines.
Parents John Black and Ellen Bone.
Magdaline 'Case', 24, born Canada, residing Louth. Parents Adam Craise and Eliza Lawrie.
Witnesses Jamieson Black and Eleanor Craise, apparently both of Port Dalhousie.
On Oct. 7, 1869, by Rev. G. Burson.

The Ontario Gazetteer and Directory of 1869 places Rev. Burson in Port Dalhousie.

The above marriage registration has one or two points of interest, rather more for the genealogist than for descendants.

Civil recordings of birth and death registrations only came into existence on July 1st, 1869. The forms for marriages were changed as of the same date and rather fuller information was required than previously requested. Prior to this, marriage registrations from the late 1850s to end June, 1869, were required and were to be filed with the county. Still earlier, registrations of marriages were to be filed with the districts.

Early church records, where they existed were probably indiosyncratic, but once the county registrations came along at least some clergy kept their local records on the same forms as the ones they would then submit to the county. An example of this may be found with First Church (at the time Presbyterian) in Galt. The forms listing the marriages would be submitted periodically, though some were obviously submitted only annually and usually the list ended on December 31st of the year.

Ideally, the marriages for the first half of 1869 should have been submitted on the county form up to end June. Rev. George Burson did not do this. The marriage for John Black and Magdalene Craise appears on a series of pages that listed marriages back to January of 1869 and the amount of information for the Black-Craise marriage was consistent with the old county forms.

The old county forms, typically, did not show a column for the exact location of the marriage, so, barring a newspaper notice, we do not know if John and Magdalene were married in church or at the bride's home in Louth Township. Old maps indicate that the Craise farm was only a short distance from Port Dalhousie in Grantham Township. As mentioned above, Rev. Burson was located at Port Dalhousie and probably the minister at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. His obituary in the May 15, 1895 edition of the Canadian Presbyterian only locates his ministry in St. Catharines (see Donald A. McKenzie, Global Heritage Press, 2016, Obituaries from Canadian Presbyterian Periodicals).