Genealogy Chat

I wonder if anyone can tell me how I can find out if a marriage took place in Spain in Wartime between a Soldier and a Spanish girl? I seem to remember that he married her to bring her back to this Country but they lived happily together for 50 odd years until her death.

Thanks in advance

oldbean

It won´t be easy.
Firstly there is no central register of BMDs in Spain. All the records are held by the individual Town Halls where the event took place, so before you start, you need to know which town they married in.
Secondly when you say they married during the war, are you talking about the Spanish Civil War?. Spain was neutral during WW2 so it´s unlikely an English soldier would have been there then.
Don´t think many records were kept during the civil war & those that were will have been extremely lucky to have survived.

Hmm! Thank you wisechild a conundrum indeed! I may not solve this one then as I have no idea where she came from. No family left either to ask which is a pity. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

oldbean

Pleasure.
Just to add.Civil marriages were not recognised under the Franco regime & youcould (& still can) only marry in church if neither party is divorced & you are both Catholic. As divorce was only recognised in Spain from 1983 it´s an academic point in this case.
It might be worth checking to make sure that he didn´t get her out of Spain & marry her when they got back to England.

Thanks again wisechild, I know that the female was a Catholic but I am sure that the soldier wasn't, I did have a look a while ago to see if the marriage took place in the UK but I didn't come up with anything although I will have another go I think as I have more time on my hands to search.

oldbean

Thank you HowardWortley, my goodness what a well documented
reply, thank you especially as I didn't expect anyone else to have an answer.

I am in the fortunate position of having a very good Spanish friend living in Spain, she does have a good command of the English language, I think I shall ask for her help. She is aware of the couple I am researching, that will help, although my immediate thought was not to go down that route for your documented reasons.

I am also delighted that you have mentioned the collection of reading matter none of which I have come across.

Thank you for my Spanish Good Luck message too!

Thanks CarolB, just found your very helpful message, something else to get my teeth into and hopefully all is not lost! Eventually all will be revealed one way or another.

Thanks again
oldbean