Hi Pam, I imagine you'll get a bunch of resposes to this. If your grandother was Catholic and was married by a JP in 1926, the Catholic Church would not recognize the marriage and often refused to baptised any children of the union in the church. Unless this husband died, she would have to get a civil divorce to end the civil legal aspect of the marriage before she could remarry as far as the state is concerned. Not so for the church, because they don't recognize a civil marriage. Now, she could have just lived with the second husband, but it would have nothing to do with religion. Back then, they may have had a funeral at the church, but they may also just have had a wake at the house and the burial directly from the house to the cemetery. If it was closer to the 1900s, then I'd say, they did it from the house. But in the 1920s and 1930s, it could have been either, depending on their financial circumstances. As for who could be buried in a Catholic Cemetery, only those Catholics who had not been excommunicated from the chur! ch. Non-Catholics could not be buried in consecrated ground. Someone who was excommunicated could also make a death bed confession if a priest came and be given last rites and would be able to be buried in consecreated ground, which is what a Catholic Cemetery is. Also, sometimes the cemetery would have a certain area which was not consecrated for certain burials. Back then that could be an excommunicated Catholic or an unbaptised child. All this will probably not help you very much because you won't know what happened back then. Marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: Pam Jeter Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 9:34 PM To: IRISH-NEW-YORK-CITY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [IRISH-NYC] HELP!!! Irish Catholic Customs? Okay, I hope someone can help me with these questions regarding Irish catholic customs...(I am pretty ignorant of the catholic religion) 1.I have discovered that my grandmother, (who would never tell me a darn thing about her family!) was married once before by the justice of the peace in 1926. Supposedly she married my grandfather in 1927, but I have never found a married license or cert in any of the boroughs for my grandparents marriage. I have looked for a death cert for the first husband to no avail, but did find his previous wifes death cert. What I am wondering is if maybe she couldn't get a divorce as she was catholic and just pretended to be married...too far fetched? Just remember the aunt in "A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN", who continually married without divorcing. Anyone else have this come up? Okay next question (thanks for your patience) 2. When a catholic person dies, would they have typically had a funeral at the church?, if so is there usually a record? And who could be buried in the church cemetery...any catholic? thanks for any advice Pam Jeter Researching: KING, McCUE, BRIDGEWOOD, MURPHY, O'CONNELL, SHANNON , McDONOUGH (Ireland>Brooklyn>NYC) ==== IRISH-NEW-YORK-CITY Mailing List ==== Do you miss receiving MISSING LINKS and SOMEBODY'S LINKS? If so, just subscribe to: http://www.petuniapress.com/ ============================== 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