Missing births and marriages. General chat.

[coombs]

My How Wyatt and Rachel Surrage could have been one of those cases where there was a licence but no marriage took place. Same for banns but no marriage. These can be safety nets if you cannot find the marriage but you can find a banns/licence.

[Jill Eaton]

I simply give up now, when they "confess" on a woolly census record  to having come from Ireland, I simply can't cope!!

I really do sympathise

[coombs]

Jonw you certainly did open up my eyes to new records online that I did not know existed. Of course some of them are available to everyone and some are only for LDS members or a FH centres but plenty of stuff that is available to any FamilySearch user.

[jonw65]

Hi
Yes, there's all sorts of things hidden away on there. As you say, we can't see it all at home. But it's always worth checking the catalogue and seeing what's available.
John

[smudwhisk]

Thanks jonw I hadn't realised that Familysearch had copies of those marriage licences.  I've been somewhat amazed at what they have had as hadn't realised in the past in spite of hiring in films to a local FHC for some years.  Just a bit disappointed that some I've found they had I didn't know about previously because I could have ordered them in prior to the film ordering cut off last September.  A number have yet to be digitised and some unfortunately although digitised (they have a DGS number) have yet to be uploaded.  Keeping fingers crossed they appear some time soon.  The FHC I use involves a 35 mile round trip but well worth it.

[JAKnighton]

On my OH's side, there are a lot of RC marriages and birth records I've not managed to find, in Lancashire. I simply give up now, when they "confess" on a woolly census record  to having come from Ireland, I simply can't cope!!

My mother's side of the family is full of dead ends where ancestors simply come from "Ireland" with the most common sounding name imaginable. William Robertson and John Adamson to name a couple, and they are in-laws!

[coombs]

I can sympathise with those with Irish ancestors. Many records are lost forever and what is out there is a fraction of them that has survived. I say civil reg, which begun in 1864 is the best full surviving source for Irish research. Many Irish people left Ireland before 1864 though.

If your ancestor was James Murphy born c1820, Ireland, living in England 1851 onwards, finding his baptism in Ireland would be like finding a needle in a haystack. You may be lucky to get a fathers name if he wed in England but that is about it.

[ThrelfallYorky]

It's good to know that I'm not alone ... mine seem to appear suddenly, usually with wives, but totally tight-lipped about where they came from, and of course that means no nice handy marriage records to pin fathers' names, occupations etc., down by. I wouldn't mind if it was only one little line, but the wretches KEEP DOING IT!!! Five lines at last check.

[coombs]

I think the Commissary Court of London marriage licences are still yet to be uploaded to FamilySearch. Many of my Essex ancestors chose that court to have their licence.

I hope we get more Devon marriage licences online soon as I am after an 1810 licence for a marriage. The couple could be the correct marriage and the licence could give their ages. I did manage to get a copy of the original marriage register when I asked Devon RO for a lookup but the bride was a widow. It was only when I got the copy of the record that I found they wed by licence and I have not asked them yet for the licence record. If she is the same one, she'd have only been about 19 or 20 at the time. Possible she was a very young widow.