oxfordshire marriage index

[bearkin]

I have a pair of ancedents for which I have a marriage allegation/bond saying they were to get married in Aston Rowant in 1747. However, I cannot find the marriage in the Aston Rowant registers or in the Oxfordshire Marriage Index. The pair certainly lived after this time as man and wife, having a number of children together. Therefore, I assume they did get married, as there is no reason to think otherwise having gone to trouble of getting the marriage bond. My question is: how complete is the oxfordshire marriage index? Does it include Bishops transcripts as well as parish registers, as this would be the next place I would look? If it is definately complete then I can broaden my search into Berkshire or Bucks, as he came the area bordering the 3 countries.

Would love to know what others think.

Pete

[Pennie]

Hi Pete ...

I have the OMI and have always understood it to be complete (although only for the OLD county of Oxfordshire).  There is the usual disclaimer on the CD-rom to the effect that "neither the compilers nor OFHS can be responsible for any omissions or errors".  I'm not sure about Bishops Transcripts - perhaps you would need to check this with the OFHS.

However, if there is no record of your couple on either the OMI or respective PRs, then perhaps they didn't actually marry ... !

Pennie

[bearkin]

Hi Pennie,

Thanks for you thoughts. You might be right that they did not get married. However, I would be surprised that they didn't, having gone to all the trouble and expense of getting the marriage bond and allegation. They certainly stayed together as a couple after that as they went on to have a number of children together.

I will take you up on your suggestion and ask the OFHS what is included. Sometimes there are events recorded on the BTs that aren't in the PRs, which may not have made it into the index. It might be that they got married in Berks as they ended up living on the border.

Thanks again for your comments,

Pete