Most certainly not since Henry VIII disagreement with the Pope (16th C), Roman Catholic marriages were not acknowledged, the only religions tolerated until about 1640 were foreign churches (Huguenots etc.) the Quakers were also accepted. The Act of Toleration of 1689 extended the scope of Protestant churches but Roman Catholics had to wait until 1778 and the Catholic Relief Acts. Cheers Guy CDKnow@aol.com wrote: > Hi, > > This is an old memory in an old head - I seem to remember reading that up to > some (fairly recent ie mid to late 18th century) point only Anglican, Roman > Catholic and Jewish marriages were considered valid. And that all baptisms > (Jewish excluded) > had to be Anglican or Roman. And all burials, again except Roman and Jewish, > had to be Anglican ; and that all, regardless, had to pay that cloth tax to > support the English textile industry. > > Seems we're all missing BMD's in the late 18th and early 19th and I'm > wondering if they didn't occur in a nonconformist denomination that didn't > keep records. (Don't know if it means anything but a lot of denominations in > America didn't record and > church records here are not nearly as helpful as in UK. My experience). > > David > ps just trying to avoid doing the work with a Google. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 -- Wakefield England I use Archive CD Books in my research http://www.archivecdbooks.org http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/dh/ Whitefield Transcripts, Etch/ells Transcripts http://freespace.virgin.net/guy.etchells Transcripts, Parish Records, Calendar, Abbreviations, Returns of Owners of Lands etc. etc.