Editing Jumping the broom (section)

==British Romani customs==
[[Romani people|Romani]] couples in [[Wales]] would [[Elopement|elope]], when they would "jump the broom", or jump over a branch of flowering common broom or a besom made of broom.<ref name="THOMPSON, T.W. p 21"/> Welsh Kale and [[Romanichal]]s in England and [[Scotland]] practiced the ritual into the 1900s.<ref name="THOMPSON, T.W. p 21" /> According to [[Alan Dundes]] (1996), the custom originated among the Welsh Kale and English Romanichals.<ref name = "Dundes 327">Dundes, Alan. "'Jumping the Broom': On the Origin and Meaning of an African American Wedding Custom", ''The Journal of American Folklore'', 1996, p.327.</ref>

C.W. Sullivan III (1997) replied to Dundes that the custom originated among the [[Welsh people]],<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=541813|title="Jumping the Broom": A Further Consideration of the Origins of an African American Wedding Custom|first=C. W.|last=Sullivan|date=1 January 1997|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|volume=110|issue=436|pages=203–204|doi=10.2307/541813}}</ref> and was known as a ''priodas coes ysgub'' ("besom wedding").<ref name="Gwynn1928">Gwynn, Gwenith (W. Rhys Jones). "'Besom Wedding' in the Ceiriog Valley", ''Folklore'', Vol. 39, No. 2, 30 June 1928, pp.149-166.</ref> Sullivan's source is Welsh folklorist Gwenith Gwynn (also known as W. Rhys Jones),<ref name="Gwynn1928"/> who assumed that the custom had existed on the basis of conversations with elderly Welsh people during the 1920s (none of whom, however, had seen it). One said, "It must have disappeared before I was born, and I am seventy-three".<!--we get it.  Others had heard of the practice, but all were unclear on the details, their evidence being peppered with phrases such as "it must have" and "I should think".-->
Gwynn's dating of the custom to the 18th century rested on the assumption that it must have disappeared before the elderly interviewees were born, and on his misreading of the [[Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog]] parish baptismal register.<ref>Probert, R. (2005) Chinese Whispers and Welsh Weddings, 20 ''Continuity and Change'' 211–228</ref>
 
Local variations of the custom developed in portions of England and Wales. Instead of placing the broom on the ground and jumping together, the broom was placed at an angle by the doorway; the groom jumped first, followed by the bride.<ref>Jones, T. Gwynn. ''Welsh Folklore'', 1930.</ref> In southwest England, Wales and the border areas between Scotland and England, "[while some] couples&nbsp;... agreed to marry verbally, without exchanging legal contracts[,]&nbsp;... [o]thers jumped over broomsticks placed across their thresholds to officialize their union and create new households"; this indicated that contract-less weddings and jumping a broomstick were different kinds of marriage.<ref>Evans, Tanya, ''Women, Marriage and the Family'', in Barker, Hannah, & Elaine Chalus, eds., ''Women's History: Britain, 1700–1850: An Introduction'' (Oxon/London: Routledge, 2005 ({{ISBN|0-415-29177-1}})), p. 60 & n. 19 (n. omitted) (author Evans postdoctoral research fellow, Ctr. for Contemp. Brit. Hist., Institute for Historical Research, London, editor Barker sr. lecturer history, Univ. of Manchester, & editor Chalus sr. lecturer history, Bath Spa Univ. Coll.), citing, at p. 60 n. 19, Gillis, J., ''Married But Not Churched: Plebeian Sexual Relations and Marital Nonconformity in Eighteenth-Century Britain'', in ''Eighteenth-Century Life'', vol. 9 (1985), pp. 32–34, & Leneman, Leah, ''Promises, Promises Marriage Litigation in Scotland, 1698–1830'' (Edinburgh: no publisher, 2003), pp. x–xi.</ref>