Ancestry/Genealogy
Related: About this forumUS Marriage registration records, how to find what they contain ?
I've been doing some amateur sleuthing for people over the years, and the biggest issue I find is finding what these marriage records actually contain. Most cases on places like Ancestry, I only see that a couple were married on such a date, but nothing else about the marriage license. Is there a site where I could see this information. In Ireland, they have scanned most of the marriage registration records, so it's a bit easier to piece things together like this
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1874/11233/8118382.pdf
no_hypocrisy
(48,555 posts)I found my paternal grandfather registered twice within three years to marry two different women. At first, I guessed he was a bigamist. But he broke off the engagement to marry my grandmother. Since was 1904, the jilted bride sued him for Broken Promise, to the tune of $264,000+ in today's dollars. (It was 1904, and it created a scandal, making the jilted bride unmarriageable.) The registrations got me so far, and newspapers.com took me the rest of the way.
OnDoutside
(20,637 posts)I did find something through familysearch.org and it gives everything I could hope for.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/How_to_Find_Massachusetts_Marriage_Records
eg https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4F6-CK2
wnylib
(24,147 posts)in every possible location, my aunt and I concluded that one set of my great-great grandparents never did marry. They had 3 children, then split up (no divorce record), and each went on to a different partner (again, no marriage record).
Explains why my great-grandfather had his mother's maiden name.
Shacking-up in the 19th century! Wonder why they never made it legal.
OnDoutside
(20,637 posts)they were married and people wouldn't know not to believe them ?
wnylib
(24,147 posts)My great grandfather was their first child, born in 1877.