Genealogy Chat

hi i received a marriage certificate through post this morning, the marriage took place in a church and it is recorded as being after superindendent registrars certificate ( in place where it usually says banns) does anyone know what this means thanks debra

There's been a thread about this recently. Try putting Superintenent Registrar in the search.

Debra There's posh! '(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.' from Clara.net. nell