WARBRIDES-L Archives

From:
Subject: Sawchuk - Missing Bride
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 14:26:45 +0100

Hello Muryl

You wrote:

>English War Bride, Mrs.
Michael Sawchuk, married in Guildford, Surrey, 1939-1946. Date of arrival
in Canada unknown. Destination Winnipeg. I am checking all the available
records I can without knowing the name of my aunt (my uncle Michael (Mike)
Sawchuk's unknown War Bride)>

You don't actually say what records you have searched - are you saying that
the marriage isn't in the GRO indexes?

I am currently in the UK (for another 6 hours anyway!) and looking for
something to pass the time while I wait to leave for the airport later so I
took a trip to the Surrey History Centre in Woking which is the record
office holding MOST of the parish registers for the county of Surrey. The
archivists and I looked at the photo on Trisha's website in the hope of
identifying the church. There are two possibilities.

1. The Unitarian Church in Ward Street, Guildford.
2. St Nicholas Church, Stoke.

The bad news is that neither set of marriage records have been deposited at
the Surrey Record Office but you may find the following observations useful.

The Unitarian Church was a very tiny congregation. No marriage registers
appear to exist and the church is no longer there. The only record
apparently existing is what is described as a 'scrapbook.' I ordered it up
and found that it is a hardbound little book with a few letters, church
accounts and such like. Clearly the congregation was extremely small up to
1929 when the book ends. There was a note in the churchwarden's report to
the effect that there had been two marriages in recent years so we do know
that it was at least licensed to conduct marriages. However, like I said,
there are no marriage records at all. There is a photograph of the church,
and it does bear an extremely strong resemblance to the wedding photo that
you have except that the windows might possibly be a little lower in your
photo - which might well count that out. However, it is possible that the
different angles of the two photographs might account for that.

Secondly - St Nicholas's church is pretty identical and was much more likely
out of the two. In your photo, they appear to be standing on the pavement
and certainly there is pavement all around St Nicholas. (ie no nice grassy
area to have photos taken).

The registers for St Nicholas are still with the minister unfortunately so
there wasn't anything else I could do. I can't help with addresses for them
I'm afraid, but an internet search should show it. Otherwise contact the
Surrey History Centre in Woking.

There are some churches that it is definitely NOT :
St Marys
Holy Trinity
St Saviours
Catholic Church (sorry, no name)
Congregational Church

Hope this helps

Debbie Beavis

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