Users' Guide to the Marriage Indexes
- What areas are covered by the indexes?
- What information is contained in the indexes?
- How do I order a marriage certificate?
- Can I see the original records?
- Why are the reference numbers different from the national marriage indexes?
- Why can't I find a marriage in the indexes?
- What should I do if I find a mistake in the indexes?
1. What areas are covered by the indexes?
Our aim is to eventually cover all marriages which took place in
Staffordshire between 1837 and 1950
These records are now held at many separate register offices.
Detailed maps of Staffordshire showing the registration districts etc., can
be found on the GENUKI
website.
The registration districts in Staffordshire have changed considerably since
1837, and very few records are now held at the offices where they were
initially registered.
For full details of all the churches, chapels and register offices included
in the database so far, see the Coverage of the Marriage
Indexes page, which also shows the years for which the records have
been indexed. Because there are separate sets of records for each place of
marriage, the dates covered will vary, although eventually all the indexes
should be complete for the years 1837 to 1950. More information will be
continually added to the database, and the latest additions will be noted on
the Updates
page.
2. What information is contained in the indexes?
From the indexes, you can find out:
(a) The Names of the bride and groom, as shown in
the registers. Sometimes a name may be spelled two or more different ways on
the same register entry, in which case each variant is separately indexed. This
same also applies to double-barrelled names, so that 'Jeffrey Johnson Smith'
would normally appear as 'Smith, Jeffrey J.' and 'Johnson Smith, Jeffrey'.
(b) The Year in which the marriage took place. In
some cases only a range of up to five years is indicated at present because of
the way in which the indexes were originally compiled, but exact years will be
provided wherever possible.
(c) The Church, Chapel or Registrar's District
where the marriage was solemnised. Until 1898 only Church of England, Jewish
and Quaker places of worship were entitled to maintain their own marriage
registers. All other non-conformist and Roman Catholic marriages had to be conducted
in the presence of a registrar, and are therefore listed as 'Civil Marriages',
together with all those conducted at the local register office. After 1898
non-conformist and Roman Catholic churches were allowed to keep their own
registers and celebrate their own marriages, and so from that date the records
for marriage are much more fragmented.
(d) The Register Office in Staffordshire which
now holds the records. There have been a large number of boundary changes
between districts since the start of registration in 1837, and as a result many
records have been moved around. The codes shown for the offices are as follows:
- CC = Cannock Chase (Cannock)
- ES = East Staffordshire (Burton-On-Trent)
- LF = Lichfield
- LK = Staffordshire Moorlands (Leek)
- NL = Newcastle-Under-Lyme
- SO = Stoke-On-Trent (Hanley)
- SS = South Staffordshire (Wolverhampton)
- ST = Stafford
(e) The Reference
Number for the marriage entry, which can be used to order the marriage
certificate, and which should be identical for the bride and groom. Please note
that this is only applicable at the register office which holds the records,
and is of no use anywhere else.
Please bear in mind that until recently the main purpose of these indexes
was to supply certified copies of entries in registers. They were therefore
written to help the registrar find an entry on information supplied by the
applicant for the certificate. Consequently, they do not always provide
information in an ideal form for family historians.
3. How do I order a marriage certificate?
If you find an entry you are interested in, it is possible to order a
marriage certificate, which is a copy of the full entry from the original
register. This normally contains the following information for both bride and
groom:
- Date and place of marriage
- Age
- Marital condition (e.g. bachelor, spinster, widow)
- Rank, profession or occupation
- Residence at the time of marriage
- Father's name and occupation
- The names of two (or occasionally more) witnesses to the marriage
Applications for certified copies of the marriage entries should be made to:
- The name and address of the person registering the birth
- Date of registration
|
Office
|
Address
|
Payments to:
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Credit Cards
|
|
CC
|
The Register Office,
5, Victoria Street,
Cannock,
Staffordshire,
WS11 1AG
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
|
ES
|
The Register Office,
22, Rangemoore Street,
Burton-On-Trent,
Staffordshire,
DE14 2ED
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
|
LF
|
The Register Office,
The Old Library Building,
Bird Street,
Lichfield,
Staffordshire,
WS13 6PN
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar
|
Yes
|
|
LK
|
The Register Office,
High Street,
Leek,
Staffordshire,
ST13 5EA
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
|
NL
|
The Register Office,
20, Sidmouth Avenue,
The Brampton,
Newcastle-Under-Lyme.
Staffordshire,
ST5 0QN
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
|
SO
|
The Register Office,
Town Hall,
Hanley,
Stoke-On-Trent,
Staffordshire
ST1 1QQ
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
No
|
|
SS
|
The Register Office,
Civic Centre,
Gravel Hill,
Wombourne,
Staffordshire
WV5 9HA
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
|
ST
|
The Register Office,
Eastgate House,
79, Eastgate Street,
Stafford,
Staffordshire,
ST16 2NG
UK
|
Superintendent Registrar |
Yes
|
Family historians are requested to apply for certificates by post and not
call casually at the Register Office. Whilst staff will always try to help,
they do have other statutory duties to carry out every day and are often very
busy with current births, deaths and marriages. Postal applications are
normally dealt with promptly as they are received.
An application should include:
- the reference number supplied in the index - this is most important;
- the name of the church, chapel or register office where the marriage took place;
- the names of one or both of the parties who were married;
- the date of their marriage (to within five years is sufficient)
Do not forget to include all the information asked for in the application -
the better the information supplied, the greater the chance of being supplied
with the certificates required. And a stamped addressed envelope will help get
the certificate back to you more quickly. Applications sent from outside the UK
should enclose two International Reply Coupons with their self-addressed
envelope instead of stamps.
The fee for each certificate is £7.00 and should be sent with the
application. Cheques should be crossed "/&Co/". Do Not Send
Cash.
Applicants wishing to pay by credit card should include in their
applications the relevant details, i.e. type of card, name of cardholder, card
number and date of expiry.
4. Can I see the original records?
Original records of births, marriages and deaths held at register offices in
England and Wales are not open to the public, and information can only be
released in the form of certificates issued by the registrars.
5. Why are the reference numbers different from the national
marriage indexes?
The national indexes of marriages in England and Wales at Myddleton Place
(formerly at St. Catherine's House or Somerset House) list all persons married
in each quarter year from 1837. They show the name of the bride or groom, the
surname of the spouse (from 1912 only), the name of the registration district
(as it existed at the time of the marriage), and a volume and page number which
is unique to the General Register Office and of no use to local registrars.
Every three months since July 1837, local registrars and Church of England
ministers have been required to send copies of their marriage register entries
to the General Register Office. For various reasons, sometimes marriages were
missed, or details were copied incorrectly from the register; this can usually
explain differences between certificates ordered by the GRO and those obtained
from local register offices. Generally speaking, registers and indexes held by
the local offices are less prone to error, and should therefore be more
accurate than those at the GRO.
6. Why can't I find a marriage in the indexes?
A quick glance through the indexes reveals some unusual spellings of common
names, and this often explains why a marriage can be hard to find. In the early
days of registration, and because of the high level of illiteracy, the bride
and groom told their name to the vicar or registrar, who would spell it as he
heard it. If the couple could not read or write, they would not know whether
the names were being spelled consistently. For example, people looking for the
Muir family may not think to look under 'Mewr', or 'Raleigh' under 'Rolli', and
a degree of lateral thinking may be required.
To help overcome this problem the search pages have the ability to try to
list names that sound similar but are spelled differently. Hint and tips about
getting the best from the search of the indexes on this web site are available here.
If you are satisfied that a name does not appear in the indexes, then your
ancestor may have travelled outside the area to be married. It was not unusual
for a couple to travel several miles from their usual home to marry at a church
used by their parents or other relations. The GRO indexes may be helpful in
locating where they married, but please remember that a lot of records have
moved around due to boundary changes between districts.
7. What should I do if I find a mistake in the indexes?
Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these indexes,
it is possible that an occasional mistake or omission can occur. If you think
you have found an error then please send an e-mail to: Webmaster@StaffordshireBMD.org.uk,
giving as many details as possible.
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