researching marriage .years 1887 - 1889 ,would the couple need to get marriage license then proceed to marry at church or chapel? did the county issue license .also where would divorce be registered. Hubert USA

Hubert the english system is/was not as you describe. >From 1837 England has had a civil registration system for births/deaths/marriages. This is organised on a registration district basis, not a county basis. With regard to marriage, since 1837 it has not been necessary to get married in a church. The alternative was to have a civil ceremony. If you got married in church you had two options a) By Banns. The normal option. The local church would announce the planned marriage for three weeks running before the service giving people a chance to object. There would also be an entry in a Banns book. Theoretically, if the couple came from different parishes then the Banns should have been called in both parish churches. b) By licence. I've never looked in detail at this except to know that it cost more money and was more private in that the planned marriage was not broadcast in the way the Banns marriage was. I think you had to have lived in the parish for longer if you were marrying by licence. Licence examples I have are of widows and widowers remarrying and under-age people marrying without parental consent (hence not wanting anyone to know about the illegal marriage). Both these forms of marriage were totally handled by the church. The church would pass details of the marriage to the civil registrar after it had occurred. It follows then that all marriages, religious and civil were registered by the civil registration officer although there is some confusion as to wether divorced women were registered in their maiden name or (former) married name. I don't think there is/was a civil registration system for divorces. Check out the FREEBMD website for most UK civil registration listings 1837-1920. If you can track down the civil registration you can order the certificate by post for about £8 (16 dollars). Jon Malings County Wexford, Ireland > From: [email protected]> To: [email protected]> Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:34:34 -0400> Subject: [BAN] INFO REQUEST> > researching marriage .years 1887 - 1889 ,would the couple need to get> marriage license then proceed to marry at church or chapel? did the county issue> license .also where would divorce be registered.> > Hubert USA> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> The online Northamptonshire marriage strays index has just been updated.> Now nearly 7,000 marriages are included. View them at> http://www.northants1841.fsnet.co.uk/northants%20strays.htm> -------------------------------> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message