Marriage certificates in more detail

Heading

This gives the place the marriage was solemnised, usually Church or Register Office, the Registration District or the Parish and the County. It is important to remember that the registration district will not always match the village or parish where the couple were living, especially in rural areas.

Directly beneath the details of the married couple you will be given more information about the religious denomination of the couple. For instance, Martino Marelli married Amy Plummer in 1891 at St George’s Catholic Church according to the rites of the Roman Catholics. Some of their children have similar information but others have ‘according to the rites of the Established Church’ (the Church of England).

Entry Number

A church will have two identical registers and when they are complete one book is deposited with the superintendent registrar but the other is kept by the church authorities and may finish up in the county record office or in the local church.

Some 500 entry registers are as yet incomplete and it is quite possible that the information has never been passed to a superintendent registrar, so there is no record of the marriages in a church in their district.

The GRO, however, takes this type of information quarterly, which is why you will often find a certificate via the GRO where you may have failed via your local registrar.

Column 1 – date of marriage.

A marriage entry is dated on the day a marriage took place. There are various ways of recording the dates of marriages as I found with the following:

27th April 1931

Sept 14th 1932

Twentieth January 1926

November 16 (with the year 1851 in the header)

May 1 1879

Column 2 – name & surname of bride and groom

It is important to remember that the name and surname of the bride and groom are not always as recorded on their birth certificates. Until later years they were not asked for proof of identity at the time of their marriage, just simply the names they were known as. Therefore, they could use different Christian names, as with Alice Amy Plummer who married using the name of Amy Plummer. Or my Henry George Webber who not only was known as George Henry on his marriage certificate but used the name of his stepfather rather than his birth name. Some people were known by aliases for many different reasons and hid their true identities, others for bigamous reasons.

Column 3 – age at the date of marriage

Again, the couple were not asked to prove their age or identity so these dates could vary enormously to the truth. Reasons might be they were under age, the bride might be older than her husband, or maybe they had to guess their ages as they did not have copies of the birth records. Also, if a couple stated they were 21 years or over they were not required to give their ages, and if they were in fact under age and married without the consent of their legal guardian the marriage itself could be classed as illegal.

I have a marriage record dated May 1 1879 with the ages of the couple simply recorded as ‘full’ and another as ‘both of full age’. Interestingly, I have one ancestor Asor Zoar who had children previously from a relationship in which she was unmarried but went on to marry someone else in 1911 aged 28 years, but she records her age as 33 years, maybe because the man she married was 50 years of age, or maybe because she was confused.

Column 4 – condition

This column records the marital status of the persons getting married usually Spinster, Bachelor, Widow or Widower.

Of course we have to allow for the possibility that one or the other might be lying as they might record themselves as single because they are already married, or maybe they record themselves as a widow or widower when not actually married to the previous partner that they shared a home, life and children with.

If for some reason a previous marriage was annulled because of age or the marriage was never consummated or the female lied about being pregnant, they would revert to their previous condition and be recorded as single.

Divorce during the 19th century was a drawn out and expensive business forcing couples to either stay together but living separate lives, to move on into another relationship without marriage or to marry bigamously.

Column 5 – occupation

The next column shows the occupation of both parties at the time of their marriage. If left blank or if there is a line through this column it does not mean that the person concerned was not employed, especially if the marriage took place during the 19th century and the party concerned was female. Again, as with birth certificates, occupations could be embellished. One of my ancestors records himself as a provision dealer when he was a shop assistant.

Column 6 – residence at the time of Marriage

The address at the time of the marriage can often be a misleading column.

Couples would frequently marry away from the districts in which they lived for a variety of reasons. Maybe there was no suitable church where they resided, or perhaps there wasn’t a church of the correct religion locally. Also we have to remember that one or both parties would have to establish residency in the location they wished to get married. Maybe they both went to stay with a relative, or maybe they both give the same address, although one might be living elsewhere. Maybe one or both parties did not have a static address and lied about their place of residence or gave that of a friend or relative in order to get married. Sometimes you will find only the village or street recorded as the address in earlier certificates, such as one I have for my three times great grandfather that records the address for both parties as simply Stoke (Guildford).

Column 7 and 8 – father’s name, surname and rank or profession

These two columns relate to the fathers of the bride and groom.

The information in these columns should relate to the natural fathers of the couple in question but again the information can be misleading. My George Henry or Henry George Pudvine, although using the surname of his step father, does not record his father’s details on his marriage certificate. There could be several reasons for this: he knew that Frederick Pudvine was not his father; maybe he’d lost touch with Frederick and believed him to be deceased; or of course that he was never told who his true father was. Legally he was required to add only the details of his natural father, but legally he wasn’t really a Pudvine.

Sometimes couples chose not to record the names of their fathers for personal reasons and although these columns were to be used only for natural parents they were not obliged to fill in this information. However, I imagine that many fabricated details of fathers where none existed to save embarrassment. Martino Marelli was brought up in a foundlings home in Milan and his parents are recorded as unknown, yet on his first marriage certificate he records his father as Martino Marelli, a carman (identical to himself) but on his second marriage certificate he records his father as Angelo Marelli, a farmer. Was there any truth in this? Maybe he was told his father’s name as a child in Milan. Maybe he fabricated a father as he was of the Catholic faith and to be illegitimate was a stigma.

If a father was deceased at the time of the marriage it was usually recorded as such under the name but not always.

The occupation is the last column and will give the occupation of the father, but if retired it will usually state that he is retired. Again, occupations are open to interpretation. For Martino I have his occupations listed on his children’s marriage certificates as fishmonger, master fishmonger, shop keeper, tradesman and restaurant proprietor. I know that he was a carman, then ice merchant, then fishmonger and finally he owned a chain of fish and chip shops, so all of the descriptions are correct although different.

When relying on occupations to verify an ancestor it is wise to remember that some occupations had several descriptions but the meaning could be the same.

The line beginning with ‘Married in’

After rites and ceremonies underneath the details of the couple married, the last part starting with the word ‘by’ and followed with ‘by me’ or ‘after and by me’ will have the following possibilities:

‘by certificate’ = found on a register office marriage and shows the couple gave three weeks’ notice.

‘by licence’ = means the couple may have married under three weeks’ notice. Maybe they needed to marry in a hurry or maybe there was another reason for the short notice, such as moving away.

‘after banns’ = Church of England marriage.

‘by common licence’ = Church of England marriage, meaning a licence has been granted by the Bishop of the diocese.

‘by special licence’ = Church of England. The licence here is issued by the Archbishop allowing a couple to marry in a church of their choice.

‘by Registrar Generals’ = found on any denomination except if a marriage was by the Church of England rites. Issued for special reasons allowing a couple to get married at any time or place due to the impending death of one of the party.

‘by superintendent registrars certificate’ = a Church of England marriage, but instead of banns being called in the church publicly notice of marriage has been given to the superintendent registrar. Reasons for this could include a need to keep the marriage private by the church or for the party in question. Having banns read out meant that anyone could view these records and create problems for the couple in question if perhaps one was of another religion or latterly if a couple was divorced.

The signatures at the bottom of the certificate

These signatures include those of the married couple and their witnesses. Although they are supposed to be signatures, their names are frequently written in full and do not give a true indication of a proper signature for verification purposes.

Generally witnesses should be personally known to the bride or groom, but again it is possible that the witnesses have been hired or pulled in from the street in some instances. Witnesses should be carefully scrutinised as more often than not they can be family members, married sisters, nieces or nephews, brothers or sisters, mothers, aunts and uncles. Usually there are two witnesses but sometimes you will find several witnesses on a certificate.

The last signature on the certificate is for the person or persons conducting the ceremony. Register Office marriages have two signatures, those of the superintendent conducting the ceremony and that of the Registrar who is doing the registration. The Church of England marriages have just the signature of the cleric in the main.

The certificate has the date the certificate was issued, same day usually.

If there are any corrections to be made on a marriage certificate you will find these in the space to the right of the certificate, otherwise you will find a line drawn through it. Although it is possible to find corrections have been added after a line was drawn through this space.

By analysing your documents thoroughly you begin to build evidence for future searches.

What the information we have this far tells us:

• Martino’s marriage certificate gives an approximate date of birth for him of about 1852; this matched with the document from the Foundlings Home in Milan.
• Martino had been an ice merchant as Bert had told us but also a carman.
• Martino could at least write his name.
• Martino moved address often.
• Martino was Italian Catholic – this is strange as Brian is Church of England, as was Bert and his father before him.
  
• Martino had been married twice, first to Ellen and then to Amy. Being Catholic it is unlikely that he divorced, so his first wife most likely died.
• Martino has given two Christian names for his father, Martino and Angelino, yet he is a foundling. Did he know his father or was he perhaps embarrassed that he did not know his father and made up a name?
• John Fred Marelli appeared remote from Martino but we will have to dig further on him to be certain.
• Ellen Mc/MackDonald’s birth is given as circa 1858 as she was 17 when she married Martino.
• The name of Ellen Mc/MackDonald’s father is given as James and his occupation as a tailor.
• Rosa, Martino’s daughter, who was born in 1877, is not mentioned on the Naturalisation certificate, so she is either living away from home or perhaps dead.
• The informant at Martino’s death, M. Davies, could be his daughter Matilda.
• Brian and his sons Ian and Jason are descendants of Martino’s second marriage to Amy.
• You can have spelling variations on records of the same surnames as with McDonald or MackDonald.

Already we are beginning to gain a fabulous insight into Martino’s life and that of his family and Brian’s family tree is growing rapidly as can be seen in figure 1.8.

Enthralled is how I would describe our feelings about having created a family tree – and not just from the information we had inherited from Bert but from our own efforts. The sense of achievement is astounding. We so wished we had done this prior to Bert’s death – he would have been overjoyed.

How could I not go on at this point? What would be the harm of finding out just a few more details?

I realised that although Brian is very interested in the results of the research it is not something he is going to be passionate about. I on the other hand wanted to return to the FRC and decided to go again the very next morning, but first I devised the simple form shown in figure 1.9 to help me keep track of my investigations. This way I can tick each year as I search saving me from going over old ground and enabling me to plan future searches.

July 1998 continued…

I arrived at the FRC at opening time. First on the agenda is Helen or Ellen, daughter of Martino and Ellen, or any similar sounding Christian name born in either 1875 or 1876 as Martino and Ellen married in 1875 and Martin, their son, was born in 1877.

An aside I ordered the birth certificate of my father Charles Maloney born in 1888, 65 years before I was born in 1953. I wanted to check if the spelling of my birth surname, Moloney, is really different to my father’s – it is – and also to have a copy for my own records.

Using my one-form system for births I could not find anything listed in 1875 or 1876 for Ellen or Helen Marelli. I considered the possibility that Ellen is the illegitimate daughter of Ellen so I searched the same years for Ellen Mc/Mack/Macdonald to be on the safe side but still could not find her.

I decided to take my search backwards and look under Marelli and the variants for McDonald but it was not until 1871 in the last quarter that I found an Ellen Macdonald born in Islington. Could this be her? I knew this would have put the mother at about thirteen years of age at the time of her birth but as unlikely as this might be I decided to order the certificate – it was all I had to go on.

My next stop was marriage indexes as I needed to confirm or eliminate the possibility that John Fred Marelli of Macclesfield was related to Martino. The only way I could think of doing this was to find John Fred’s parents’ marriage certificate that in turn would give me the names of his parents and maybe a link to Martino. I also wanted to look for the marriage of Matilda Marelli to a Davies because the name M. Davies is a witness recorded on Martino’s death certificate. I chose to work on Matilda’s marriage from 1903, when she would have been 21 years old, to 1910 first, then if I could not find her to work backwards from 1903. I had no reason for choosing this method, it was just how I felt at the time. I found Matilda’s marriage in the third quarter of 1908. I then estimated that as John Fred Marelli was born in 1879 his parents could have married reasonably within the ten years prior to him being born; I could always go back further, or forward, if required. I started from the year 1869 and found details of the marriage of his father George Joseph Marelli of Macclesfield in the last quarter of 1870.

From marriages I went to deaths to investigate the possibility that Rosa had died, as she is not mentioned on the naturalisation certificate. I plucked some years out of the air starting at 1880. I was shocked to find a death under the name of Amelia Marelli of Lambeth dated in the second quarter of 1886, but Amelia is one year old on the Naturalisation certificate in 1897, so who was this? I then found a death certificate for a Rosalier Marelli in the district of Lambeth, and assumed this to be the Rosa I was looking for. This is dated in the first quarter of 1888. Engulfed by a strange sense of grief I decided to continue looking through deaths for other Marelli family members but found nothing until 1901. This was for Martin Marelli, who had to be Martino’s eldest son as his name is also on the naturalisation certificate. The district is listed as Wandsworth and the certificate dated in the first quarter of 1901.

I had not prepared myself for the way these discoveries would make me feel so I went outside for a cigarette and allowed the warm sunshine to diffuse the gloom that had come over me. I felt what I could only describe as grief for those who had died but also for Martino to have lost so many children. Upsetting as this was I went back to continue with my search for Marelli deaths. This was a bad idea as I was beginning to lose my concentration through mental fatigue but also because the area had become busy. It was not until I reached the second quarter of 1922 that I was to find another death. It was for Amelia Marelli again but this time from Wandsworth! Two Amelia Marelli’s – perhaps this one is another relative of Martino’s. I ordered all the certificates and headed home.

The certificates arrived within the week

The first certificate was for the birth of Ellen MacDonald (sic), who although registered in the indexes for 1871 was actually born in December 1870. This proved, not surprisingly because of the birth year, to be the wrong Ellen MacDonald. The father was a Frederick MacDonald, occupation lithographer, and I needed the father to be James McDonald, occupation tailor, as recorded on her marriage certificate.

The second was the marriage certificate for George Joseph Marelli, a draper who married Mary Worthington. His father is listed as Domonic (sic) Marelli, occupation agent. I think now that this family of Marellis is no relation to my family of Marellis. Will hold onto the documents and maybe investigate further. What I had to remember here is that although the Marelli surname was rare in England in the nineteenth century, and still is now, it is fairly common in Italy so I reasoned the chances of the two families being related, although not entirely impossible, are remote.

The second marriage certificate for Matilda Marelli, dated 5 August 1908, was the right one. Matilda aged 27 years married Thomas Morgan Davies aged 25 years, a boot retailer’s manager. They were married in the Catholic Church of St Vincent of Paul, Battersea. Thomas gave an address in Wandsworth and Matilda Battersea, his father David Davies is a toplate worker journeyman and Martino’s occupation was given as fishmonger master. Witnesses at the wedding were C. A. Davies and

R. J. Todd, but also Martino Marelli and Ellen Marelli. Ellen is obviously the missing daughter I was trying to find. Ellen, Martino’s first wife, had already, I assumed, died since he had remarried Amy by 1908.

The first death was for Amelia Marelli dated 27 May 1886; she was only three months old (see figure 1.10). She was the daughter of Martino and Ellen and her occupation was given as daughter of Martino, a fishmonger. The cause of death shook me: accidental asphyxia in bed, and written underneath the date of death was ‘found dead in bed’. There was an inquest because noted under informant was: ‘Certificate received from William Caster, Coroner for Surrey, Inquest held 31 May 1886’. Perhaps this was a cot death or perhaps the baby was in bed with the parents and accidentally suffocated?

The second death was for Rosalier, another child of Martino and Ellen (see figure 1.11). Rosalier died on 3 March 1888, aged just three years, occupation noted as daughter of Martino an ice merchant. The cause of death was tubercular meningitis. The certificate also stated that Martino was in attendance. Rosalier died at home in Lambeth.

Rosalier and Amelia had such short lives but what felt more tragic to me is that they had been completely lost to the family. All that remains of those two little girls is two little pieces of paper.

The third death – for Martin Marelli aged 22 years – was dated 15 March 1901. He was also the child of Martino and Ellen. He died of ‘phthisis pulmonalis exhaustion’ (sic), basically meaning ‘wasting disease, tuberculosis’ (see figure 1.12). Martin also died at home in Battersea with Martino present at his death. What struck me as tragic here is Martin’s occupation was also listed as fishmonger master, suggesting a father and son business.

The fourth death certificate was for the second daughter of Martino’s called Amelia but from his second marriage to Amy. Amelia died at home in Battersea on 6 June 1922 aged 27 years, a spinster of no occupation, and daughter of Martino, a fishmonger master. Her cause of death was ‘pulmonary phthisis and rheumatoid arthritis’. Matilda Davies from Brixton was present at her death. I wonder why Martino called two of his daughters by the same Christian name, especially as the first had died as a baby?

Now when I look at Martino’s photograph (see figure 1.13) I see so much more than I did before – the pain behind his eyes, his strength and his pride. I can only admire this man who endured, with the evidence collected so far, the loss a daughter of three months, a daughter of three years, his eldest son at the age of 22 and another daughter aged 27 and most likely his first wife. Would they all have survived had they been born just a few decades later?

An aside The extra certificate was for my dad, Charles Maloney, and is dated 4 January 1888 (see figure 1.14). It shows he was the son of Charles Maloney, a marine stoker and Elizabeth Maloney, formerly Pilkington, living in Tatlock Street, Liverpool. Dad is a Maloney but his children were registered as Moloney.

What I learned:

• Sometimes births were registered late, as with the incorrect Ellen MacDonald.
• At some point in the future I would have to investigate more about inquests that might throw some more light on Amelia’s death.
• Sudden/accidental death was investigated even all those years ago. I had such a false impression of Victorian life and family values – I thought they lived in the Dark Ages.
  
• I was learning medical terms and also medical history which got me thinking that when a doctor asks questions about the history of illness in the family how little we know.
• I was going to have to order at some point incorrect certificates, a risk worth taking if only to eliminate those nagging doubts or non-family members of the same name.
• It is worth doing blanket searches or one-name searches, otherwise I would never have found the forgotten children.
• Marriage certificates listing other family members can tell you that certain family are still living or still single at that time.
• Finding more of Martino’s children and ordering their certificates has given me so much more information about some of the difficult times during his life, the areas he lived in and his occupations. I now feel I am beginning to get to know Martino on a personal level.

Column 1 – when and where died

This is the actual date and place of death.

The place of death could be at home, place of work, hospital, institution or even in another district depending upon where the person was at this unfortunate time. So the residential address given here may not be that of the deceased but the address of the place at which they died.

The type of residence is not always shown in the address and although it does not state perhaps a workhouse or prison it is worth checking if the address was residential.

Column 2 – name and surname

The same care should be taken with death certificates as with birth and marriage. If a person dies alone they may be dependant on a neighbour to register the death and this person may not be in possession of the deceased’s true identity. A baby dying at birth may not have any name, or just that of the father, or if illegitimate the mother.

Column 3 – sex

Although rare, some mistakes are made when filling in this information.

Column 4 – age

This is the age of the deceased at the time of death, although the age on death certificates, especially during the 19th century, is more often wrong than right, as I have found so many times when comparing birth, marriage and census records with deaths.

We have to remember that the informant of the death may be no relation to the deceased such as a neighbour or a workhouse master and be guessing their age. Also, the person who is deceased quite possibly may have been estimating their age due to lack of legal documentation. Even if family members are the informant they do not necessarily know the exact age of the deceased. It could also be likely that the deceased lied about their age for one reason or another, such as a female who was older than her husband. Even with children, mistakes can be made so it is advisable to seek further evidence for the ages of deceased ancestors.

Column 5 – occupation

Here the word occupation can have a different meaning to what we perceive occupation to mean. If the deceased is male, as with Martino, his occupation is shown as ‘Fishmonger Retired’ but the occupation of his wife Ellen was recorded as ‘Wife of Martino Marelli Ice Merchant’ and his daughter Rosalier as ‘Daughter of Martino Marelli Ice Merchant’. Sometimes the working occupation of a female is listed as well as the details of the father, or it might say of no occupation if they were keeping house or ill, or sometimes even when they were actually employed.

A man could have no occupation shown, without explanation, meaning they were out of employment, or retired or perhaps ill. Also the occupation on a death certificate could be totally different to their actual life-long trade if perhaps in later years they became a night watchman.

If a child was illegitimate then their occupation would be recorded as daughter of the mother.

Column 6 – cause of death

Cause of death can be recorded as follows:

• Uncertified death – early recorded deaths where there is nothing other than the cause of death recorded, such as Old Age or Senile Decay. If the word certified is written under the cause of death is usually means a doctor has certified the death.
• Certification by a doctor – the most commonly recorded and usually with a doctor’s name. (You can usually establish if a doctor has certified the death by the medical terms used).
• Certification by a post-mortem but without an inquest. Sometimes when a doctor has not certified a death or the cause of death is unknown a coroner may request a post-mortem.
• Certification following an inquest. An inquest is requested in suspicious or unusual circumstances, as with Martino’s daughter Rosalier and once satisfied the death will be certified according to the circumstances. Rosalier’s death is recorded as accidental but could have been recorded as natural causes. Sometimes it could read suicide or murder.

Column 7 – signature, description and residence of informant

The informant of the death would sign the certificate if able to write their name or they would make their mark as with other certificates.

The informant could be whoever was present at the death; this could sometimes mean a relative, even if the name is unfamiliar to you, or it could just be an unrelated neighbour, friend or occupier of the property in which they died such as a rooming house or workhouse. It is important to remember that earlier death certificates do not usually record the relationship of the informant or if they do it could record someone as being a daughter when they are really a step daughter.

By the last quarter of the 19th century more information about the informant is given making it easier to identify relationship to the deceased.

If a partner of the deceased is unmarried they cannot register the death unless they were in attendance when their loved one died.

When the informant is not related the information recorded is more likely to have errors, such as one of my ancestors being recorded as being the widow of her son Samuel rather than her husband William. Reasons for this could be that the informant never knew her father-in-law as he died many years before when she was a young woman, and that she assumed he had the same Christian name as Samuel, her husband.

The address or residence of the informant will be recorded much the same as recorded for births. Early records will more often record just a village, while later certificates will give a full address.

Column 8 – date of registration

Most deaths are registered within a day or two of the date of death but I found some deaths registered as long as eight days after the date of death. Reasons for delay could be because a person died in suspicious circumstances as with the death of one of Martino’s children who died accidentally in bed and an inquest delays registration. It is important to remember that the date the death is registered is the date you will find it in the indexes.

Column 9 – registrar’s signature

Here we have the registrar’s signature but if a death is recorded more than a year after date of death the signature of the superintendent registrar is also required.