Interpreting choices: what can we infer from where our ancestors married?

Rebecca Probert

doi:10.24240/23992964.2021.1234536

Abstract

This article analyses a sample of 1,052 weddings reported by family historians as taking place between 1837 and 1952 in order to build up a picture of the characteristics of those marrying in a register office or registered place of worship under the Marriage Act 1836. It situates this data in the context of the national-level statistics in order to provide a more nuanced picture of the religious affiliation of those marrying in a registered place of worship and to determine whether those who married in the register office exhibited different characteristics to those who did not. It also analyses the changing legal framework in order to show how this determined the options that were available to couples at different times. Finally, it identifies what inferences can be drawn from the wording on the marriage certificate, for example whether a marriage is recorded as being conducted ‘by’ or ‘before’ a particular person or ‘according to the rites and ceremonies of the parties’.

Highlights

In researching our ancestors’ lives, it can often be difficult to determine what is worthy of note and what would have been normal for the time
Were any of your ancestors Catholics or Nonconformists? If so, could you provide details of when and where they married – whether in a civil ceremony, Catholic or Nonconformist church, or in the Anglican church? If they did not marry in a place of worship that matched their religious affiliation, do you know why
Take-up was markedly more enthusiastic among Catholics than among Nonconformists in the early years: in the light of estimates that Catholics accounted for under 3 percent of the population in 1840s, while Protestant Dissenters accounted for around 20 per cent, it was striking that the nationallevel statistics show marriages registered as being solemnised in Catholic chapels accounting for between 25 and 44 percent of all marriages in registered places of worship between 1844 and 1853.19 Within the sample provided by family historians for the period, the percentage was 31 percent

Summary

Introduction

In researching our ancestors’ lives, it can often be difficult to determine what is worthy of note and what would have been normal for the time. Just 10 per cent of all remarriages in this period were recorded as involving a spouse who was divorced,[71] but among the register office remarriages reported by family historians it was 45 per cent Many of those who had been divorced may not have had the option of marrying according to religious rites, some denominations were willing to conduct such remarriages.[72] Given that the number of remarriages after a divorce was still relatively low, the greater likelihood that such remarriages would take place in a register office cannot by itself account for the rise in register office marriages. There were still a substantial number who married there for a specific reason – for example a pre-marital pregnancy or the fact that one of the parties was divorced – but there is a sense of couples’ choices being shaped by more practical considerations

Conclusion

Findings

A Catholic couple in the register office