Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know what the difference is between 'licence' and 'banns' for a marriage? I know what Banns are, and presume you would have needed to apply for a licence from somewhere, but what would make the difference?

And if my ancestors had applied for a licence, would there be a documentation available with any other information on it? Where would I find the application?

thank you

Julie,
I have a couple in scotland that say under warrent from the sheriff as they where 2nd marriages. may be that the difference

Ah, that makes sense - thank you Janice - to my rescue as always!

I have a couple that married in 'The Parish Church in the Parish of Weston super Mare'. How can I find out which actual church it is? There seem to be several in WSM. And are there any records of applying for the licence anywhere?

If you go to this site, it explains marriage licences:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_license#United_Kingdom

bellblair - according to the cert, they are bachelor and spinster so probably not in this case but worth bearing in mind for the future - thank you.

thanks Potty, just read - very useful. will keep it book marked

Janice - date of wedding is 14th April 1853

is that postcard St Johns? I see it says parish church on it....

good idea - also found site for st John's church, with links for family historians. Might email and ask for more info.

Borrowed from here :- http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certifi...iages.htm#COL9

1) "by certificate" which would be found on a marriage entry in a register office marriage register or in a non-conformist marriage register. It shows that the couple waited 3 weeks between giving notice and getting married.

(2) "by licence" which would be found in the same set of registers and would indicate that the couple may have married with less than three weeks between giving the notice and getting married (minimum of 1 clear working day). However - a licence lasts three months so the marriage wasn't necessarily done in a rush. It may have been easier to give only the one licence notice rather than the two that would have been needed for a marriage by certificate if the bride and groom lived in different districts.

(3) "after banns" which can only be found in a Church of England marriage. It is the equivalent of the certificate for the register office/non-conformist churches.

(4) "by common licence" which can only be found in a Church of England marriage. The licence has been issued by the Bishop for the diocese and I believe is the equivalent of the licence in a register office or non-conformist church.

(5) "by special licence" which can only be found in a Church of England marriage. The licence has been issued by the Archbishop not the Bishop. I believe that this would allow the couple to get married in a church which is not the usual parish church for either of them but I am not sure of this.

(6) "by Registrar Generals" which could be found on any marriage certificate except for one where the marriage was by the rites of the Church of England. It is issued when one of the couple is dying and it allows a marriage ceremony to take place at any location at any time of the day or night.

(7) "By superintendent registrars certificate" is a very rare finding. It is issued for a Church of England marriage but instead of banns being called in the church, notice of marriage has been given to the superintendent registrar. In the early days this would be necessary where services were held so infrequently e.g. in a small chapel,that it was not possible to call the banns on three succesive Sundays and get married all within the three months time limit. Later on it was sometimes used as an expedient if for some reason the vicar did not want to make the forthcoming marriage in the church public knowledge and have the entry in his banns book which anyone can look at. The sort of problem might be where a bride and groom were of different persuasions and the vicar either didn't want the congregtion in general to know or even the bride/grooms family if he thought they might try to disrupt the ceremony. It is sometimes used these days when one of the couple is divorced and the vicar does not want it generally known that he is marrying a divorcee in his church.

wow thanks Keith - that is really good stuff there - I will paste this and keep it on my pc - thankyou very much