Dublin marriage

[Mo C]

Can someone help please.  I have a marriage certificate for my grandparents which shows them as married in the Pro Cathedral on 29th April 1903, with witnesses James and Charlotte Brittain (uncle and aunt of the groom).  Yesterday I came across their wedding on the free church records site.  According to the information on there they married on 17th May, 1903. The brides mothers name is given as Mary Hurley when she was in fact Mary Toole, and the witnesses are John and Ellen Sheehan.  Names that I have never heard before.  Was it usual to have two ceremonies about this time, one civil and one religious at a later date?  When I got married about 48 years ago, admittedly in England, the registrar came to the church and married us in a civil ceremony immediately after the the church ceremony.  What was the norm in Ireland at that time?
Maureen

[DudleyWinchurch]

Don't know if it was the norm but have come across records from the ProCathedral that appear to have been registered with the civil registrar up to a couple of weeks later (civil record from GRO has normal marriage entry in box in centre of page but an additional printed column at the side of the page, confirming registration and signed and dated by civil registrar).

I can imagine that this arrangement would leave room for discrepancies to creep in, or is it possible that the priest allowed witnesses by proxy for the church marriage (which certainly is permitted for baptism sponsors) but was then required to declare the witnesses as those present on the day for the legal registration?

Is the certificate that you have, a legal certified copy of marriage entry in the register?  If so it should tie up with the legal record (GRO) but mistakes do happen.

[Mo C]

Hi DudleyWinchurch,
I have a copy of their marriage certificate from the GRO in Roscommon and one that I downloaded yesterday from the church records site. The GRO cert. gives that date of marriage as 29th April 1903, the church records give it as 17th May.  I looked in the church register page on the church record site and it has the date of 17th May, and although the bride and grooms names and addresses are the same it could almost be another couple going by the names of the witnesses,  just wondered if it was the norm at that time.
Maureen.

[DudleyWinchurch]

Hi Maureen,

I realised that I had a GRO record for a 1904 ProCathedral marriage so have just compared them.

The date is the date of marriage in both these cases (but the date when the registration was confirmed on the GRO record is almost a month later so gives the possibility that a different date could be copied across).

In the record that I checked, the addresses of both bride and groom have been changed slightly in the church record book, the number is different on one and a "Gt" has been missed off the other address, and the bride's family name has an O' prefix missing in the church record.

I suspect that the church entries were entered at some time after the event and there appears to have been a lack of care taken in doing so (perhaps on the basis that this was not a legal record).  What I was asking earlier was: is the GRO copy a certified copy or a research copy?  The research copy, if it is the same as the one I obtained from Dublin research rooms, would have an extra column at the beginning showing when the formal register entry recorded at the church was registered by the registrar.  It's possible that it was the date from that column that was accidentally entered in the church record book (which has many entries on every page - as opposed to the registrar's book at the church which would have only two entries per page, I think).

Sheila

[Mo C]

Hi Sheila,
Yes, my certificate has an extra column on the lefthand side but that just adds to the confusion in that the date it was registered by the Registrar is the 28th May, 1903 while the church book shows 17th May, 1903.  Also the certificate says the priest that married them was James Flaven and the church book says he was John Flanagan.!!  I know irish research is hard but this is plain daft.
Thanks for your interest..
Maureen

[myluck!]

In searching for records I went to a Dublin Church in the last few years to follow up on siblings - I had a baptismal certificate for one family member.
The lady in the parish office told me when I returned (and showed me the book) that the original certificate was incorrect. The person who had written it out had gone off by one line and although the child's name and his parents were correct the sponsors and priest were not.
Something like this may have occurred to give you such varying details

[Mo C]

Hi  MyLuck,
I had a look at the parish book online and it appears just as I wrote earlier.  If it wasn't for the bride and grooms addresses and details I would be inclined to dismiss it as another couple.  Oh well another of life's little mysteries.
Thank you for telling me of your experiences.
Maureen