1836 marriages "proclaimed"

[brooksburns]

Hi, my People Of Interest are in a 1-liner further down this page (see image), which states only: date; names; parish name.  That's the same for most other entries; just two longer entries mention the word "married".  At the top of the page it says "proclaimed" as you see.

So, is this proof of marriage and is the date beside my POI their marriage date?

[Kay99]

Wondered whether it related to the proclamation of banns??  https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/birth-death-and-marriage-records/old-parish-registers/marriages-and-proclamation-of-banns

Kay

[Gadget]

I agree, Kay. It looks like the standard entry for proclamations. Often these have dates of the proclamations and the actual ceremony.

Gadget

[Albufera32]

The thing to be remembered here is that prior to the introduction of Statutory registers in 1855 in Scotland, these are church parish registers and not marriages (or births).

Generally they are considered as "proof" of marriage, since no direct marriage register exists in most cases, but yes these are usually records of the proclamation of the banns, rather than the date of the actual marriage (except where as mentioned you have a further addition of "married on ...). The same often goes for births, where in many cases what you will find is the record of the child's baptism, with the actual birth date sometimes but not always included.

Ultimately what you add to your tree is a matter of personal choice. Some put the date given as the birth or marriage since they have no other date they can use, others scrupulously list the baptism or banns and simply give the actual birth or marriage as "about."

One other detail - once the banns were announced, if the couple subsequently DIDN'T marry, that would often appear in the kirk session records, so if you have access to those and no mention appears, you can be pretty confident of the marriage taking place.

[GR2]

These marriage-related records can be very sketchy. I looked at the index to see the actual date for your couple and it was 4th September 1836. That was a Sunday, so was probably the date of the first proclamation of banns.