Genealogy Chat

Well I married in 1957 in the Catholic Church and the priest then still weren't authorized to carry out legal marriages ,
We had to post the banns at the local Register Office as well as the Church.
The Registrar attended the church and was waiting in the vestry for the marriage ceremony that was performed by the Priest according to the the rights of the Catholic Church to be conducted. When we went to the Vestry we had the legal marriage part conducted by the Registrar and then we signed the register that the Registrar had brought with her
Shirley

From the start of civil registration in 1837 up until 1898, it was a requirement for the registrar to be present at all Roman Catholic and Non-conformist marriages in England & Wales, with the exception of Jews & Quakers. The registrar kept his own register which was additional to the church register.

In 1898 the law changed to allow an "authorised person" to conduct RC & NC marriages and therefore the requirement for the registrar to be present was removed. Therefore, in your case (1886) it is quite possible that they did in fact marry in a RC ceremony - the "official" registration would still have been by the civil registrar.

Not sure of the date when this changed, but untill fairly recently in genealogical terms, Catholics were not allowed to perfom legal marriages, so marriages had to take place either before the Registrar, or the C of E Vicar as well as the ceremony in the Catholic church.

Perhaps someone knows when this changed?

Thank you.

Register Offices were introduced in 1837, at the same time as compulsory registration.

Can anyone please tell me when Registry Offices first started being used. I have a marriage certificate for 1886 for two people who were of Irish Catholic decent. It seemed strange given that the rest of the family were staunch catholics.