When tracing marriages you sometimes find that the couple married by Licence rather than having Banns called in both the bride and groom’s local church. Marriage by Licence speeded up the amount of time needed before the marriage could take place. When a couple married by Licence three separate documents were created.
When tracing marriages through Parish Registers you sometimes come across a copy of the Bond as well as the record of the marriage itself. However, there is no hard and fast rule as to what information should be included in the documents, even after 1754 when the rules were tightened up. You may be lucky and find a wealth of information or just the names of the bride and groom.
Marriage Certificates, which were issued from 1837, also contain useful information. Both fathers are named together with their occupations and whether one or both are dead. The Certificate also contains the status of bride and groom and their ages, although sometimes the Certificate simply states they were of full age (21 or over). The addresses of both parties to the marriage are included plus the names of the witnesses. From the Certificate you can see if the bride and groom and the witnesses signed their names or simply made a cross. Remember that the witnesses might tie in with other family research.
In Victorian times children as well as adults could act as witnesses to a marriage and sometimes you will see the names of up to four witnesses. When doing research for a client I noticed the same witness’s name cropped up in a succession of marriages in the Parish Register. Further investigation proved that this was one of the church bell ringers who obviously made a little extra money by standing in as a witness when required! All in all Marriage Bonds and Certificates are a rich source of information for the family historian.
Useful resources and free tools for the family history researcher including:
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