Civil registration of births, deaths and marriages didn't commence until 1856 (from memory) so prior to that there were just church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials. With the move to civil registration, it seems like a good idea to collect up the church records as the best approximation to BDM records for the earlier years. So what you are seeing is the *church* registration of a marriage. I am guessing that 1850+51 is the date on the register (or page in the register) in which the marriage appeared. And the year of registration 1854 is exactly what it is says ... the year the *government* recorded details of the marriage (presumably extracted from the church register). Now normally the year of registration is the same as the year the event took place, but there are some common exceptions: * events in late December are often not registered until the following year * deaths in WW1 of Queenslanders overseas were added to the Qld death index in 1922 (so the year of registration is 1922, even though the death may have occurred in 1917). * parents who forget to register their children at birth but do so years later (you often see the code "LR" late registration in these cases) * parents who forget to register their children at birth but the govt notices the birth through other records (e.g. hospital or midwife) -- usually you see "MB" memorandum birth on these. County of Stanley. Like the UK, we have counties in Australia, which in turn are divided into parishes (these are "civil" parishes as distinct to church parishes). However, for everyday purposes, counties and parishes no longer exist. Most people only realise they exist when they buy house/land as the "real property description" on the title of their land will be described in terms of counties and parishes. Personally, I live in the suburb of Chapel Hill, which is in the Parish of Indooroopilly, County of Stanley. But trying giving that address to a taxi driver :-) However, in the early years, the use of County of Stanley for the area of modern Brisbane (more or less) and County of Cumberland for the area of modern Sydney (more or less) were still in everyday use. My great-great-grandmother declared on her marriage certificate in the 1860s that she was born in 1840s in Cumberland (without any mention of Sydney!) -- it took me a while to work out that she didn't mean Cumberland in the UK. Kerry -----Original Message----- From: aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:aus-qld-brisbane-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of chris.horgan Sent: Wednesday, 3 June 2009 4:35 PM To: aus-qld-brisbane@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUS-QLD-BRISBANE] Marriage Certificate Hi Listeners I have just received the contents of a marriage certificate from Queensland BDM with the following information: *Wesleyan Marriages solemnized in the parish of Moreton Bay in the County of Stanley , New South Wales, in the years 1850+51. They both declared they were both members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. John Phillips of Sydney and Martha Davis of Brisbane were married on the 13th December 1851 at Brisbane. Witnesses - James Sutherland & Mark Crabtree. Minister - John Waterford.* Can someone plese tell me why Morton Bay, County of Stanley was part of NSW. and what do the years 1850+51 represent. On Queensland BDM the marriage year is 1854, Thanks Chris Horgan Toowoomba Dead Persons Society www.audps.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-QLD-BRISBANE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message