"Bride's protector" in marriage act - meaning?

[challinan]

Hello,

I have a marriage act that reads "Family Council and Mateusz Zakrzewski, bride's protector, present during making of this act gave oral permission for the marriage." I have googled but can't find any information about what that means. Could someone please enlighten me?

Thank you,
Carolyn

[Obidka]

There was a custom that after husband’s death, especially when he left underage children, his family gathered at the lawyer’s to decide about the family’s future. They set up the Family Council (Rada Familijna) to care about left properties and children (mother as a woman had no right to decide I think). Members of the council could be brothers of the late husband, his friends or, if still living, his father, generally men who were close to him. One of them was chosen to be the head of the council and children’s protector, he replaced their father and gave them for example permission for marriage. That is all I know and only because I read some documents of 1837 about setting up Family Council. So I think this is the case in your marriage act.
Regards,
Basia

[piotr_nojszewski]

If you have some luck you can find additional info in Annexes (Polish "allegata" or "aneksy") to the marriage act (if they survived) or by the local notary.
This documents could include be a list of the council members with signatures.

[challinan]

Interesting!

Thank you for sharing,
Carolyn