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Church marriage found but no corresponding civil

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  • 19-07-2018 9:40am
    #1
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Hello all

    Looking for some help please.

    Church marriage 21/10/1871 in St Michael's, Limerick city. Mary Jane Mahony to James Irwin. No parents' names recorded. Her descendants show a DNA link to mine and I have someone of that name born in 1856 in the relevant family, who I never found details of thereafter. The descendants have an extensive tree on Ancestry.

    There should be a civil marriage but I can't find it. Rootsireland has the transcription from the church record, which I also found on Ancestry and FMP. Finding the civil would lock down this as the right connection (but it's a strong one so I already feel it's right). I've tried Shane's trick of flipping pages back and forth: the McNamara-Coghlan marriage on the same church register page is here, but it misses out a few marriages.

    Would appreciate some fresh eyes please.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #2
    KildareFan
    Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    I too have found church marriages with no civil marriage records to back them up. I think sometimes the priest just forgot or there might have been a cover up - like one of the parties being previously married.


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    #3
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Well, I've just been looking at their kids and the first was born 3 weeks before they got married, so that may well be the case!! His baptism is recorded a year before his birth registration too.

    Actually scrap that, it's a Rootsireland transcription error. He was born in 1872.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #4
    Hermy
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,302 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    pinkypinky wrote: »
    Church marriage 21/10/1871 in St Michael's, Limerick city. Mary Jane Mahony to James Irwin.

    Probably not a significant factor but the date looks more like the 19th to me.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #5
    BowWow
    Registered Users Posts: 1,760 ✭✭✭BowWow


    Have you checked the first quarter of 1872?


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    #6
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Yes - I ran the search without years to pick up anything with the right names, as well as checking variant names.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #7
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    Oooh I've found a second marriage connection to these people. Definitely on the right track.

    44 new people on my tree.

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #8
    KildareFan
    Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭KildareFan


    It's strange, I've looked up the couples married before and after James Irwin and Mary Jane, and they are all recorded on the civil register, but no James & Mary Jane. See https://bit.ly/2L9ZEHy & https://bit.ly/2myKc8Z.

    It is possible that they got a church blessing for their union - maybe they had been married before in a registry office.... or there may have been some other obstacle.


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    #9
    pinkypinky
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,616 Mod ✭✭✭✭pinkypinky


    It's very odd. I also looked for others at the same time.

    They were both Catholics. I'm not aware of a consanguinity issue. James remarried after Mary died (1891).

    Genealogy Forum Mod



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    #10
    RGM
    Registered Users Posts: 484 ✭✭RGM


    I have this same problem and it's been a thorn in my side for years. Mayo marriage from 1903, nothing otherwise out of the ordinary, but no matching civil record. A very kind lady at the GRO said they even looked through the original district register. Nothing. It's the worst because even though I have a potential birth record and parents for the bride, they remain unconfirmed. It's the itch I might never scratch.


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