Genealogy Chat

This may sound like a stupid question, but are Marriage Records before 1983 always indexed by both surnames of the couple? IOW, can I always find the same Marriage record listed twice, under each surname? If not then which surname is the recommended one to search for? The Husband's or the Wife's?

Yes, there should be an entry under the names of both bride and groom. Helen

The best surname to search first is the less common one !! it will be quicker and cost less (if your on 1837online !!) Elaine :-)

You will find that before June/Sept (forget whcih) 1911 you will only get the surname of the bride and the groom. You will then have to know the other name you are looking for. Freebmd will be able to help as they list all names on that page 4 name 2 x 2 from around 1870 again can't remember exact date. Before that you will get 8 names 4 x 4. Not to bad if you are lucky and not to many Jane's and Mary etc. Irene

Thanks for your tips! Irene, what do you mean by 2 x 2 and 4 x 4? Could you please explain in more detail? Sorry, I'm a newbie (just started building my family tree 2 days ago).

I have found the marriage for one of my rellies (the groom) but his wife is not listed at all. On freebmd for the date and place I looked at it listed 2 males and 1 female, so unless it was a particularly strange wedding, the bride I'm looking for wasn't listed at all. I've also looked on 1837, and she's not on there, so I've ordered the certificate and am keeping fingers crossed that its the right one

I think on FreeBMD it is still being transcribed so at the moment not all the names are on there. I used to transcribe for them and you get sheets that are in alphabetical order so if John Adams married Elsie Stone then you will wait a while for the Stone name to appear. Hope this helps you out a bit, bit frustrating isn't it. Julie

Giles, on FreeBMD there are several marriages to a page. Earlier ones have eight people (4 marriages) and later ones have 4 people (2 marriages). So you may get an entry like Ann Smith 6b 808 Clare Jones 6b 808 John Adams 6b 808 David Wight 6b 808 But before 1911 you have no way of knowing who married whom. Also you may find Ann, Clare and John listed but that David had not been transcribed yet - so search for both surnames.

Ooh how spooky we both used the name John Adams!!

Giles I noticed you put IOW,is that for Isle of Wight, if so the Isle of Wight family history society have transcribed some births and death and also marriages from 1837 till 2000, and both bride and groom are entered together. http://www.isle-of-wight-fhs(.)co.uk/ remove brackets

Sorry to hijack your thread Giles, but I wanted to say thanks for the reply about having an odd bride or groom! The same thing happened to me recently, where I had the bride I was looking for but no trace of a partner, so now I know that her groom may not be transcribed yet!! Mandy :)

IOW = In other words. Some interesting stories I'm hearing here...

Janet You and I have the same problem. My name was right - but hubbys surname spelt wrong by 1 letter. My married surname is Cornish - they have transcribed as cormish. Hubby won't believe it when I say we are not married and I want half his pension!!!!!! (lol) Liz

Giles I did a search on FreeBMD other day using the man's name and got two men and one woman on the page. I already knew the bride's name so I then searched for her and the page number was different! I checked on 1837online and the page number was the same for both so it had been mistranscribed by FreeBMD. So my advice is ALWAYS check on 1837 for any info you get from FreeBMD. Good look with your searching, you will become addicted! Lynne

After many searches on 1837online for other names, I decided to look up my own marriage out of curiosity. I was astonished to discover that I had been listed as Druer instead of Driver in the index, both for my own entry and for the spouse's name against my wife's entry. As that was as recently as 1970, think how many errors could have occurred in the previous 133 years of records. Stan

Hi Everyone For those of you looking for that elusive partner try spelling the name wrong. So far two of my ancestors are mispelled on GRO records. I have Warner spelt Warener and Crawley spelt Crowley. I only found the Crowley when I got the maiden surname of his wife and on the list of names is William Samuel Crowley. This could be the reason some of us cant find the details. Regards Christina

My grandfather has his mother's maiden name misspelt on his birth entry - Toone instead of O'Toole.