Genealogy Chat

Hi guys,

I googled 'Marriage Banns' and it basically said the purpose of banns is to enable anyone to raise any legal impediment to it.

I found the marriage certificate and a record that has dates of when the upcoming marriage announcements were made.

This is the first time that I have come across a marriage bann in such detail. Does this mean that the announcements were made in a newspaper. Can I do anything else now with this knowledge?

Erika :-) x

they were announced in church 3 times before the marriage and sometimes put at the church entrance.[for those that could read]

Ah, so published probably means within the church....

Not necessarily published in the Church - I have a vague recollection that at my first marriage in Catholic Church where there had to be a Registrar present that the banns were also put up in the local Register Office. Certainly at my second marriage which was in the Register Office they were published on the notice board there for 3 weeks before the wedding.

Banns would sometimes be read out at the church service on Sunday for 3 weeks before the wedding.
Well they were when I got married

Many thanks :-) x

Banns are still read out in Church for 3 consecutive weeks in a period before the wedding. If you don't have banns you need a special license, I think. Banns are kept in a register, so that in itself is an important piece of research.

Right ,

in a Catholic church wedding,

marriage by/after Banns is normal-ish......yes?

what about By Certificate?

would that ,mean a hurry up wedding?

or a certified reason, such as a mixed marriage.......(one non catholic faith)

Bob

my first marriage was "mixed faith", Catholic & C of E but banns still read in Anglican church & posted in register office. Not sure what a "certified reason" is

Banns are only read for Church of England weddings; for all other weddings (eg Catholics, Baptists etc) a notice of marriage is given (this is usually at the register office)

I recall banns being read in my R C church when I was a lad.......late 40's. n fifties....
now whether they were patrons of this same church I dont know....
Bob
PS
I have two certs using certificate, one in 1909 where my nan was 23 and he was 35......(registrar office)...in bethnal green, and the other in church,1934 where the bride was non catholic....

A church of England vicar is a registrar in his own right and there are no notices given in the register office. A Roman Catholic may read out details of people getting married, but this is not the same as Banns.

Just to warn that the reading of Banns does not mean the marriage actually took place. Marriage by licence cost more money, so most poor people couldn't afford it. That is why you often find couples living at the same address on marriage, cos they needed to be in the same parish at the time of marriage in order for the banns to be read.

Or they said they were living at the same address ...

Also, some couples married by licence just to show that they could afford to!

Jill

Hi Erika, just read this.
When I was young & a churchgoer, banns were read out in the 'Notices' after main service. It was customary for the engaged couple to attend whichever church was reading the Banns on that day, so they could be seen to be present. If they lived in different parishes, I think Banns were read out in both churches. Of course, nobody ever objected.
My grandparents married in C of E, but by 'Licence' - she was only 16 & did not have parents her parents approval. On the MC her age is stated as '21'. To marry going through normal channels, you needed parents' permission.

Vicki

Madmeg - you don't need to be in the parish to have banns read. Banns are normally read at the home parish of the bride and of the groom, so an artificial move like you suggest would mean they would only need to pay for one set of banns to be read.

When we married in 1957 in the Catholic Church our banns were displayed in the notice box outside the local Registry Office and a Registrar attended the church to legally marry us in the vestry after the Church marriage had taken place, this was because then the Catholic priests weren,t licensed to perform legal marriages.
They did also each week after the 10.30am Mass read out the marriage intentions that were to take place in the church for the next 4 weeks.
I believe now the Catholic Church is a licensed legal venue and no Registrar is needed to perform a second ceremony

If you marry 'by banns' in the Cof E, they are read out in the Parish Churches of each of the couple, plus at the Church where they are to marry, this happened to me, where I married at my 'family' Church after moving away.