08 October 2019

Registration of Marriages in England and Wales

The October - December 2019 issue of the Journal of One-Name Studies includes an article by Peter Copsey on New Rules for Marriage Registration in England and Wales.

Although the impact on genealogists is minimal, Peter points out that present marriage registers will be closed. The Diocesan record offices, normally the County Record Offices (CROs) in England and Wales, will be (should be?) receiving all those marriage registers in use today (which can go back many years). They should be available in due course for examination by the public visiting the CROs.

As the registrar offices will register marriages is in a similar way to births and deaths, it is hoped that the GRO will be issuing earlier annual (perhaps quarterly) indexes of marriages. Marriage is presently running nearly two years behind births and deaths. Marriages for 2017 and births/deaths for the second quarter of 2019 are the latest indexes to be issued.


1 comment:

Pat Jeffs said...

You didn't say why the present marriage registers are closing. Despite the fact that for the past year nothing seems to happen in Parliament except Brexit, one Friday back in the spring a private members bill went through both the Commons and the Lords which tidied up a number of problems with the present registers. One of the changes is the inclusion of new columns to allow for mothers of the bride and groom to be listed on the form--the first time that this was thought necessary since registration started in 1837!