This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: jimlancaster94 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.britisles.england.lan.general/52544.3.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I support the statements by Ovington1 and AnthonyMarr about RC canon law. Before July 1837, Catholics, like almost everyone else in England had to be married in a licensed Anglican church before an authorised Anglican clergyman. As this was seen by some as accepting the teachings of the Anglican church, it was not liked but the Catholic clergy accepted that it was required by the civil law. In practice, some people were married by their local priest, some were married by their local priest and had a marriage service in the Anglican church, and some just had the Anglican service. There were probably two factors affecting their decision, did they have property that should pass to their children, or they likely to need parish relief. After July 1837 the civil registration of marriages began and Catholics could be married in their own chapel, by their own rites, provided the chapel was licensed AND the Registrar was present for the civil registration. Again some Catholics continued to use the local Anglican church for their marriage, possibly bec! ause it was a nicer church, or it was the accepted local place to be married, or... In 1898 the civil law was changed and non-Anglican congregation could apply to have an Authorised Person appointed for their chapel. Many Methodist and other Free Church congregation made use of this legislation but it was not widely used by Catholic chapels until about 1970. In 1837, England was considered a missionary territory by the Church authorities in Rome. In the early 1800s England was divided into four Districts and in 1840 Lancashire became a separate District. It was only in 1850 that Bishops were appointed to dioceses in England and Wales. England was still considered a missionary country and priests were appointed to Missions. The priest served the people who attended his mission, even if they had passed another Catholic chapel to attend his chapel. In 1908, the papal document, 'Ne Temere' was issued because the Catholic authorities in Rome were concerned about bigamy. The Church's teaching is that marriage is for life and it was concerned that people were getting round this by moving or migrating to another country. Amongst the changes that were instituted was the requirement for a Certificate of Freedom to Marry, this being a copy of the baptism register for the person including any notes. After the marriage the officiatin! g priest had to inform the church of baptism of the details of the marriage for them to record against the baptism entry. It was only about 1920, that England's status was changed, canon law became fully applicable and Parishes were established. > john dunford born 1812,now did he marry ann campbell born 1819/or did he marry ann hannah born 1819, it seems there children have the same names ,and same date of birth,and married the same people like me you would say this is impossible, but British genealogy say could her name been ann hannah campbell Where did these statements originate? Have you seen the ORIGINAL records of these statements? LancashireBMD (http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/ ) which is an index to the local Registrar's Registers (the PRIMARY record) rather than the GRO Index, does not have an entry for a DUNFORD marriage in 1837. This suggests that the marriage was before July 1837. If the marriage was in a Catholic church the entry MIGHT have been in Latin. In this case, the priest would have rendered the name he was told into Latin. The problem we face is that the priest did not have a list of Latin equivalents for English names. He guessed a 'best' fit and so it is not possible to translate the Latin form back into English with any certainty. 'Anna' in Latin MAY represent the English names Ann, Anna, Anne, Annie, Hannah, Nan, Nancy and probably others. You must make your choice based on your knowledge of your family. With regard to where baptism can take place, about six weeks ago my great grand son was brought down from Orkney to be baptised in the parish in Bury where I live. My parish priest readily agreed to perform the baptism but required my grand daughter to obtain the written permission of her parish priest. Hope this helps Jim Lancaster (Bury, Lancs.) Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>