Adrian, A part answer... AFAIK, Marriage records are retained in the GRO Index Registers indefinitely. The entries are not removed if the couple are divorced, so I doubt if they would be for annulment. It should be possible to get a certificate from the details in the Index. A similar situation exists for adoption. The original birth Registration Index entry is retained, even though the original certificate has to be handed in. Recently we had to get a copy of an 'original' birth cert for a passport application - an adoption certificate was not considered sufficient! HTH, Ken On 30 December 2014 at 15:32, Adrian Abbott via <goons@rootsweb.com> wrote: > I have recently looked at two aspects of marriages in my ONS that > cause me to question how marriages may be recorded. > > Firstly, a couple who lived together for two years, then married and > continue to live together. The wife now states that the marriage (in > England) has been annulled without giving details. How is Annullment > dealt with in the records - since the marriage would have appeared in > the GRO listings, would it now have been removed? And if one applied > for a copy of the marriage certificate using the original GRO > reference, would one get it, or a statement explaining it had been > invalidated, or what? > > Secondly I have two instances of adoption in the USA where the birth > registrations have been changed. In both cases the respective mothers > had a child by a first marriage, which was registered as usual. The > couples then divorced and re-married, the second fathers legally > adopting the children in question. The births were then re-registered > changing the children's surnames, giving the adoptive father's names > as the actual fathers, with their ages and occupations at the date of > birth and naming the fathers as Informants of the births. In other > words, there is no evidence that there has been a change of the > fathers, and the only indication I can see is that the date of Filing > is a few years after the births. In fact it appears that the State in > question has knowingly sanctioned deliberately untrue Certificates. > Now I can see that this may be desirable in some cases, but surely is > very questionable, and I know one of the children had great problems > obtaining a Passport when the difference in dates was noticed. If this > has happened, is there any paper trail that would enable the original > birth details to be found? > > Adrian > _____________________________________________ > > RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message