Please could some one advice me? Am I right in thinking the indexs you can search for Marriages were transcribed from the original books kept in the town hall perhaps or did the registrar send a transcription into a central collection place. I am searching for my 2 Great Grandparents marriage which hasn't been transcribed into the index and I am wondering if there would be the original registers somewhere. I am not sure if they married in a Synagogue or not but either way would they not have had to register there marriage ( I very much doubt they married in church as the offspring married in a synagogue). Their first child was born in Mile End, London and my 2 x grandmother states spitalfields as her birth place. Does anyone know where I would find these records or have I got it totally wrong! I don't mind being told I've got it wrong I am finding it quite difficult to get the facts straight. Thanks very much Debbie Bozkurt (Outer Hebrides)

>From the time Registration started in 1837 the Suprintendent registrar for each registration district would send in copies of all the Births Marriages and deaths that were registered in the previous quarter. As I remember it from when I got married in the Register Office there were two books for us to sign The one certificate was given to me as the wife and the other was kept by the registrar. It is the information on this second book that is sent on the quarterly returns. If we had married in a church then there would have been a third book which is kept by the church. With the Jewish faith it was the Rabbi that was licenced to perform marriages not the place so many marriages were done in private homes but were registered at one or other of the Synagogues depending on which Rabbi performed the ceremony and filled in the books. To find a record of a marriage it is easier to search the GRO indexes than to go to the local Register Office because each separate church or chapel or Rabbi had their own separate book. However, The GRO index is known to be incomplete. The Books "A Comedy of Errors, The marriage Records of England and Wales 1837-1899. and A Comedy of Errors, Act 2" by Michael Whitfield Foster, show that about 10% of marriages registered in England and Wales between the start of registration and 1899 do NOT appear on the GRO index or are mistranscribed. If they married after 1837 they would have had to register the event, whether it reached the Index is quite another matter. The only way to find out, if they are not on the GRO index is to make a list of all the places they might have married and then contact the local Register Office, cross your fingers for a friendly registrar and see if you can get them to agree a price for searching all the places on your list. Ann Macey in Rainy Newport South Wales ----- Original Message ----- From: "Debbie Bozkurt" <debbieinscotland@googlemail.com> > > Am I right in thinking the indexs you can search for Marriages were > transcribed from the original books kept in the town hall perhaps or > did the registrar send a transcription into a central collection > place.