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- Family History General Discussion (http://genealogistsforum.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=39)

- - Civil Marriages (http://genealogistsforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=27819)

Between OH snoring and me being quite ill I could not lie down without coughing last night and so decided to put my time to good use.

About 2am I had a look at an ancestry hint and found a likely marriage for my 4greats uncle in 1855. He, however, seems to share my painful 3g grandmothers annoyingness and he had a civil marriage according to Staffordshire BMD.

Correct me if I am wrong, this means there was no church wedding and therefore no parish register entry doesn't it? Is there any other way of finding out any details without ordering the certificate? He's not that important to me at this time that I want to spend the money.

Civil wedding means Register Office wedding so the only way to find the details is to buy the cert. annoying isn’t it. Staffs BMD will tell you which register office it was and where those records are now held or of course you could still use the GRO.

Sometimes you can be lucky and find that someone has attached an image of the marriage certificate to their public tree.

I don't know about Staffordshire bmd, but on the Lancsbmd site, the wording is

"Register office or Registrar attended" which doesn't always mean a registry office wedding, it can sometimes mean a marriage in a place of worship which was not authorised to perform marriages. This concerns quite a few of my nonconformist relatives and there is actually a record in the church or chapel.

OC

Staffordshire BMD indexes say "Civil Marriage" to cover most non-conformist weddings as well as those which took place in a register office. This s what it says on their website:

Quote:

Until 1898 only Church of England, Jewish and Quaker places of worship were entitled to maintain their own marriage registers. All other non-conformist and Roman Catholic marriages had to be conducted in the presence of a registrar, and are therefore listed as 'Civil Marriages', together with all those conducted at the local register office. After 1898 non-conformist and Roman Catholic churches were allowed to keep their own registers and celebrate their own marriages, and so from that date the records for marriage are much more fragmented.

So, from their index you can't tell if the marriage was in a non-conformist church or chapel, some of which of course have online images and/or online transcriptions, or in a register office.

I think it's a bit of a generalisation to say the part above about "after 1898", as that suggests all non-con churches celebrated their own marriages etc from that date, but I've been to a registrar attended marriage and I'm not that old!! lol

I use Staffs BMD a lot, being in Staffordshire. If it’s a register office it says which one, like Burton R/O

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merry (Post 360736)

Staffordshire BMD indexes say "Civil Marriage" to cover most non-conformist weddings as well as those which took place in a register office. This s what it says on their website:

Registrar attended marriages happen a lot now with more weddings being in places other than church or register office. My younger daughters wedding was in a woodland setting licensed for marriages. The registrar performed the ceremony.

So, from their index you can't tell if the marriage was in a non-conformist church or chapel, some of which of course have online images and/or online transcriptions, or in a register office.

I think it's a bit of a generalisation to say the part above about "after 1898", as that suggests all non-con churches celebrated their own marriages etc from that date, but I've been to a registrar attended marriage and I'm not that old!! lol

With a lot of weddings now not being in church or register office then they are registrar attended if they are licensed to perform weddings. My daughter married in a local woodland setting licensed to hold weddings. The local registrar performed the ceremony

Marg

That's really handy. On lancsbmd there's no way of knowing where the civil marriage was performed, only which local RO issued the certificate.

I wonder why the various ukbmd sites vary with the amount of info they give?

OC

You might strike lucky with a newspaper announcement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olde Crone (Post 360742)

Because they have all done the transcripts independently. How much was transcribed would depend on how much the project co-ordinator would think was useful/acheiveable.

In the past I have done both parish register and census transcriptions. What was required varied enormously.