Genealogy Chat

My great grandparents married on 15th Feb. 1890 in the primative Methodist Chapel, Smith Street, Rochdale Lancs. Their certificate states 'By certificate' Minister Samuel Johnson Registrar Elias Taylor. out of interest I looked up their marriage on BMD Lancashire website, and it states, place of marriage Rochdale register office, or Registrar attended. please could someone explain why a registrar would have to attend a chapel marriage? Many thanks Sheila.

At that time church of England ministers were legally able to register a marriage but most non conformist ministers were not so the registrar had to attend to make the marriage legal.

Short answer is because at that time the only people able to perform legal marriages were Church of England vicars etc, or Registrars. It means that no-one at the Chapel had the legal right to perform a recognisable marriage, so the Registrar attended to make it legal. Roman Catholics, Quakers and Jews were exceptions to this rule and marriages performed by their clergy(? right word?) were recognised as being legal. OC

Thankyou Judith. OC. Simple when you know. kind regards Sheila xxxxx

Individual chapels had to be solemised which meant paying a fee to be licensed to preform weddings so a small chapel might not have bothered.

Thankyou Annie, All very interesting, and something that I thought would have changed long before 1890. Both parties were christened Church of England,and great grandfather married his first wife, who died young , in the anglican faith, so the fact they were married Methodist is interesting. Sheila.

I recently attended a wedding in a Baptist church and there was a seperate registrar to the minister conducting the service.

I married in a Baptist Church in 1989 and a registrar needed to be present as our Minister was not a certified registrar. Liz

A member of the Church of England clergy is automatically a Registrar - part of it being the Established Church. I believe that, although it is often the case that equivalent religious leaders in other denominations and other religions are Registrars, it is not actually automatic. Christine

My brother did too, Gillian. The priest hadn't twigged that my father could have done the job for them! Christine

This still went on in 1957!! we were married in a Catholic church but we had to be remarried in the vestry by a registrar cos it wasn't a legal marriage otherwise. we had to post banns not only in the church but at the local Town hall & book the registrar to attend the wedding to do the legal thing.