Kent Registration Index - Where!?

[Zacktyr]

Hello all,

There are two different websites that have Excel files containing an index to the marriage register codes.  The first link includes the SS31/3 code which represents marriages that occurred specifically at The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Sexburgha church on Minster, Sheppey. 

The second link also is to an Excel file containing marriage register codes but, in some respects, is not as complete as the first.  Yet, in others, it is more complete.  For instance, it contains the register office codes, in particular SMILT for Sittingbourne, Milton Register Office.  The numeral 9 would refer to the book in use at the time of the marriage.

http://www.fadedgenes.co.uk/Kent_Marriage_Registers.XLS

http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/famhistory/KentRegCodes.xls

Sincerely,
Susan

[Alex Walker]

Many thanks, I had seen the faded genes one but not the other, that's great and very helpful too!

Alex

[bearkat]

Thanks from me too. 
 
I'd seen the paternoster link (but couldn't get it work) but the faded genes one was new.

So Milton Register Office  no chance of seeing the marriage entry without buying the certificate.

As I know who he married the money would probably be better spent on getting his birth certificate which will tell me the names of both parents.

[Zacktyr]

You are quite welcome for the links.  I like to assist where I can.  Good luck in your respective searches.

Sincerely,
Susan

[Zacktyr]

Hello Bearkat,

I know it seems like the cost of a certificate would be best spent on the birth - which, of course, is absolutely essential toward proving parentage - but, I have seen so many surprises turn up on marriage certificates that, if it were me, I would still obtain the marriage certificate, first. 

Not only does one gain the potential advantage of identifying collateral branches of family that can be instrumental in regressing lineage, but, also, one gains the added weight of the evidence from a primary source to support a father by the comparison of name and occupation.  (Leaving aside the two obvious circumstances that (a) one really only knows with certainty a child's mother, and (b) a father's name can be recorded differently on two different documents.) 

Additionally, the marriage certificate is the only document to state a bride or groom's marital status and age as well as if a licence had been necessary to obtain prior to marriage.  If the marriage did take place on the authority of a licence that one piece of paper can hold some very useful information.

Most of all, building solid documentary evidence of a lineage requires taking all of the life events, in turn, in reverse order - that is, grave to cradle and not cradle to grave - and obtaining the documentary support at each juncture in the life of an ancestor.  Once all of the pieces are reassembled in the proper timeline, one can immediately spot if something doesn't fit or if a critical clue has lain previously undetected. 

Sincerely,
Susan

[casalguidi]

The first link includes the SS31/3 code which represents marriages that occurred specifically at The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Sexburgha church on Minster, Sheppey. 

Yes, that would be the Abbey Church, Minster.

So Milton Register Office   no chance of seeing the marriage entry without buying the certificate

At least some of these Registry Office codes do contain entries for non-conformist chapels so perhaps your options are still open as to the place but possibly not viewing Bearkat

Casalguidi

[Mean_genie]

Up to 1898 the Register Office marriage registers would include any performed in Nonconformist places of worship, because the Registrar of Marriages had to be present, but in that year the Authorised Persons Act was passed, which allowed Nonconformist clergy to apply to become Authorised Persons, able to perform and register marriages in their own right, without a Registrar, so from then onwards a Nonconformist church or chapel might have its own register.

This caused some problems, though, because some Nonconformist clergy thought that this entitlement came with the job, as it did for C of E clergy. As a result, some of them performed marriages in good faith, not realising that they had to apply as individuals. This meant that there had to be occasional pieces of retrospective legislation to legalise these technically invalid marriages.

Mean_genie

[BrendaP]

Yes, you are correct in saying SS31/ is Minster in Sheppey and SMILT/ is Sittingbourne-Milton Register office which would have included non-conformist chapels.

My list was put together with the help of KFHS and NWKFHS email groups.  It's ages since I've been onto Rootsweb so I'll take this opportunity to advertise my main website.  Just follow the links from:
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html
Over the Easter break I added a bit about what info is on BMD certificates and how accurate or otherwise that info might be

If anyone has a marriage certificate from a church not in the list (or Dave Dixon's list) please look at the Kent Reg Services website to get the register code and let me know.

Brenda