Kim, thank you for the very complete explanation of how the VS recording system worked. I am resending to LL and NS for others' edification. bob gillis Kim Stevens wrote to me: > I have worked with the originals. > > On a quarterly basis those authorized to perform marriages filled out > pre-printed forms and submitted them to Halifax. There the country > registers were created from the quarterly forms -- which is why all those > marriages are not in chrono or alpha order, or even in the right book. They > are in chrono order only on a quarterly basis by submitter in what was then > know as "book index" format. > > Then the annual alpha index was created from the "book index" county > registers. > > Not all of the quarterly reports have survived in the NSARM, so in some > cases the first transcription from quarterly form to book-index county > register is the "closest to the source" record. > > Now, there are several ways errors could have crept in. > > The original quarterly reports by marrying official were probably made up > from individual slips of paper recording the marriages as they occurred. > Some slips could be lost or forgotten -- and in fact, if you follow the > quarterly reports sometimes a forgotten entry from a previous quarter is > included. Or if the quarterly report is submitted late, marriages from the > next quarter are included. Because there is a break in the registers each > year, January and December seem to be the months with the most out of order > by year entries. > > Then in retranscribing the quarterly reports to the county registers, > another error opportunity creeps in, especially for those officials with bad > handwriting when the transcribers were unfamiliar with the names in that > part of the county. > > And then the alpha indices leave another area for error. > > And then compound this by realizing that for much of the period of civil > marriage records being available, spelling was phonetic rather than fixed. > As in the church records, the same name can be spelled several different > ways within the same entry -- but all the same phonetically. That is, > spelling was very flexible, and orthographic differences in names were not > used or recognized -- that came much later. > > Licenses were separate matters. If you had a license, it was signed off on > by the minister and returned to the license office. But licenses were not a > part of the civil marriage registers. You could be married, as before, by > license or banns, and as far as the civil registrars were concerned, it was > noted but made no difference. > > We have to be very careful about projecting today's practices on older > times. This essentially was simply a civil recording and reporting of > marriages for whom the ministers already had civil authority, but for which > the recording was via religious rather than civil registers. That is, > adding an additional reporting responsibility, this time to civil > authorities. It did not change at all how people really were married, or > change the nature of the persons authorized to marry them -- it is simply an > added civil reporting responsibility. > > I know in one case where the Anglican minister was also the civil registrar. > When civil registration started in Oct 1864, he simply stopped making > entries into his religious marriage register. In his mind, it was all the > same, and his previous civil responsibility he had had to make a marriage > register for his church no longer was necessary when he had to make a direct > civil report. > > All this comes out of British practice, not North American traditions, and > must be approached with that cultural baggage in mind. > > Regards, > > Kim > > -----Original Message----- > From: nova-scotia-bounces@rootsweb.com > [mailto:nova-scotia-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of bob gillis > Sent: Saturday, 09 June, 2007 13:49 > Cc: Nova scotia; Lunen-Links > Subject: Re: [NS-L] Lunenburg County marriage recorded in > KingsCountyRegister. > > > Dave Tanner wrote: >> An overly simply explanation might be that these county record books >> were in alphabetical order on a shelf at a Provincial office. >> >> K for Kings would be next to L for Lunenburg and maybe the wrong book >> was taken down in error to record a Lunenburg entry. > > That is a possibility. However it depends on how the provincial records > were kept. I think we are looking at the Pprovincial copies of the > Registers and compilations of Marriage Slips. > > In Massachusetts form the early 1840s, the town entered the information > from the marriage slip into a Register, this register was copied and > sent to the State. Errors were made in making the register transcriptions > > What was the procedure in NS? I note that the earlier records are the > images of the registers. I do not know if the registers we see are the > county copy or the provincial copy. Later records are the marriage > slips or copies thereof with a notation on the slip of the book and page > numbers. > > Did the county send the marriage slips to Halifax where they were > entered into the registers by by the provincial authorities in county > registers, or did the County Registrar enter the marriage slip info into > the county register. > > The procedure must have changed at some point but on line we cannot > browse the pages of the registers to see when a change was made. > > bob gillis > ---------------------------------------- > Basic List Commands: > > 1. To post to the list > Send a message to: > NOVA-SCOTIA-L@rootsweb.com > > 2. How to unsubscribe > a. List mode: Send a message to NOVA-SCOTIA-L- > request@rootsweb.com that contains only the word > unsubscribe > > b. Digest mode: Send a message to NOVA-SCOTIA-D- > request@rootsweb.com that contains only the word > unsubscribe > > 3. 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