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Registry Office Weddings

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  • Registry Office Weddings

    I have today received a Certificate for a Wedding at Chorlton, Lancashire Registry Office in 1877
    This is the first time I have come across one and wondered TWO things
    1)-When did Registry Office Weddings start

    2)-The Cert. says married by LICENCE and I wondered where the copy of this Licence would be kept. I usually find Licences for my Lancashire and Cheshire lot, for churches, at Chester RO. Are those for Registry Offices kept at the same place.
    Any help appreciated

  • #2
    1) They started in 1837 at the same time that civil registration itself started.
    KiteRunner

    Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
    (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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    • #3
      And 2) I don't really know the answer to this one. For marriages before 1837, it is not usually the actual licence that is held in the record office, but the bond or allegation. But I'm not sure what there is for post-1837 licences, though I have a feeling that if you do find it then it is unlikely to tell you more than the marriage certificate itself does.
      KiteRunner

      Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
      (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks for responses.
        It was just curiosity on my part

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        • #5
          Marriage in a register office by licence meant that the couple didn't have to wait 3 weeks, which they would have to if they married by certificate. They could have married a day after the licence was issued, and it was valid for 3 months.

          The earliest register office marriage I have is for my gt gt grandparents Honor Brewer Pope and James Broad, in 1852, shortly followed by the birth of their first child. I think it was a shotgun wedding!

          Husband has gt grandparents' marriage in 1898, which I think was because groom was C of E and bride was Jewish.
          ~ with love from Little Nell~
          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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          • #6
            Very few licences survive as they simply instructed the incumbent or registrar that the formalities had been completed and the marriage could go ahead.
            See my certificate page at
            certificates

            Cheers
            Guy
            Guy passed away October 2022

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            • #7
              The earliest two register office marriages in my tree are both for couples where the marriage is bigamous for at least one party (in the second case, possibly both parties! lol)

              Was that because it was "OK" to lie to registrar, but not to a man of the cloth?!!

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              • #8
                My only Registry Office Marriage Licence is for my grandparents when they eventually tied the knot after having 4 children. The marriage did not take place until 13 years after the last child was born, and 22 years after the first child was born, and with a licence I am left wondering why such haste at the end when there was none in the beginning???

                Janet

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                • #9
                  Janet

                  It meant the Banns didn't have to be displayed at the RO, so was more or less a secret wedding in keeping with the circumstances!

                  (The notice of intent to marry WOULD be displayed but if they got a wiggle on it would only be for a couple of days, or less even).

                  I have a good few early RO weddings but that is because mine were nonconformists and their own chapel did not perform weddings.

                  However, the chapel RECORDED the weddings and where they had taken place, and it looks as if they might have had some kind of blessing ceremony according to the lights of the chapel.

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Guy View Post
                    Very few licences survive as they simply instructed the incumbent or registrar that the formalities had been completed and the marriage could go ahead.
                    See my certificate page at
                    certificates

                    Cheers
                    Guy
                    Interesting Site.
                    Thanks Guy

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                    • #11
                      OC

                      Yes, I can see that could well be a reason. Nobody in the family seems to have been aware that this happened, and I would appear to be the only member of the family with this secret!! I am sure that my own mother was never aware of this! My grandfather left the family home just six years later for Scotland where he died, presumably after a business failure which he entered into the year they married which could have been another reason for tying the knot, perhaps she thought she would lose out to a business partner if anything untoward happened? They were all well known in the Disrict where they lived and I can see they would want the least amount of publicity under the circumstances. This is what digitisation does for you, throws up the past secrets which people once thought were safe!

                      Guy

                      Interesting to see what the registry office marriage licence looked like, thaks for that.

                      Janet
                      Last edited by Janet; 27-09-08, 10:52.

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