Registry Office

[tdgower2]

Hi there

I've just received the marriage certificate of my 3x great grandparents, Francis Colley and Emily Thornton.
I always wondered why i couldn't find a record of their marriage on ancestry/findmypast, and now i know why, they married in a registry office!
This was in 1876 in Driffield, Yorkshire. It's the first time i've seen this, has anyone else seen this with their ancestors? What building would they use? Maybe a town hall?

Kind regards, Tom

[Jebber]

Since Civil Registration began on the 1st July 1837, it has never been compulsory to marry in church. Thousands of marriages have taken place in a Register Office. The building in which one took place  would depend on the area and time period .

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have often been surprised at the number of weddings I have come across in the mid 1800s which do not appear in parish records, so may have taken place in a register office. My research is mainly in rural East Kent, and not such that I wish to pay for certificates. I suspect sometimes it was a wish for privacy.
   I also wonder where the marriages took place - did each registration district have a designated building or did they have to go to the nearest large town? How do I find this out? The registrar of births and deaths seems to have been a local man, at least in the early days.

[KGarrad]

Town Directories, such as Kelly's and Post Office Directories mention the Register Office, and sometimes the sub-offices.

[Jebber]

  I have often been surprised at the number of weddings I have come across in the mid 1800s which do not appear in parish records, so may have taken place in a register office. My research is mainly in rural East Kent, and not such that I wish to pay for certificates. I suspect sometimes it was a wish for privacy.
   I also wonder where the marriages took place - did each registration district have a designated building or did they have to go to the nearest large town? How do I find this out? The registrar of births and deaths seems to have been a local man, at least in the early days.

Quite a lot of marriages took place in Nonconformist churches, if the church was unlicensed then the Registrar had to be in attendance. Because there is no calling of Banns in Nonconformist churches or Register Offices, a notice if intention to marry is posted in a public place at the Register Office, this serves in the same way as Banns, giving anyone the chance to object to the marriage. However, unless the forthcoming marriage was public knowledge, and  they had reason to visit the RO, objectors could remain in ignorance.

I was married in a Congregational Church, so my intended marriage was posted at the RO. I have only attended one marriage in an RO and I said never again, it was about as romantic buying a dog licence.

[Rena]

My maternal grandfather's line is from Norfolk and apparently one of his ancestors was a gypsy.

I think the gypsy could be the 16 year old bride "of age" that married in the local registrar's office.

[Jebber]

It is going to be fun for family historians of the future to research their ancestors marriages, so many other buildings are now licensed for marriages. Although I stand to be corrected, I believe there are plans to lift the restrictions on marriages in the open air. At the moment, couples holding the ceremony on the beach for example, have to through the formalities in a Register Office before or after the event.

I know there is a place a short walk from where I live, one couple wanted to marry in the grounds. They were told that the guests and everyone could be outside, but the couple themselves had to stand just inside the building for the marriage to be legal.