Genealogy Sources
Marriage Certificates
Abundance of Detail Provided
Reading left to right, a marriage certificate offers the following information; date of the marriage; full names of the bride and groom; their ages (if an entry says ‘of full age’ it probably means over 21, though not always!); their ‘condition’, for example, whether they were a bachelor, spinster, widow or widower; their professions; their addresses at the time of marriage; their father’s names and surnames (if relevant, the word ‘deceased’ or an abbreviation thereof appears next to the name/s); and their father’s professions. Below this you can find information on where the marriage took place, who officiated at the ceremony, and who the witnesses were.
Boost Your Genealogy study
Marriage certificates can put rocket boosters on your search. Let’s say, for example, that you have used your grandfather’s birth certificate to discover the names and surnames of your great-grandparents (and the maiden name of your great-grandmother). From the ages on their marriage certificate (if the precise ages are recorded) you can calculate the years in which both people were born, allowing you to search for and obtain their birth certificates. The certificate may also reveal that one of the other was a widow or widower. To whom were they first married and how did their spouse die? You can disappear back to the marriage indexes and see whether the widow or widower’s name appears in the year’s preceding their marriage to your great-grandmother/father. That will then lead to another marriage certificate, giving you the name and age of the deceased spouse. Then you can wade through the death indexes to discover how and when the person died.