Who When Where

At long last!.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56975357

Long overdue - but a shame it has to mean there will no longer be register entries for future researchers to look at.

Yes, another lost tradition for those getting married and future family historians.

AntonyM wrote: ↑04 May 2021, 10:51 Long overdue - but a shame it has to mean there will no longer be register entries for future researchers to look at.

Why do you say that Antony?

Part 4 Registration of marriages section 7 of the The Registration of Marriages Regulations 2021 Statutory Instrument states:-
7. In Part 4 of the 1949 Act, before section 63 (searches in register books), insert—
“53A Register of marriages

(1) The Registrar General must maintain a register for the recording of information relating to marriages and the registration of marriages, which is to be known as the “marriage register”.
(2) The marriage register must be accessible in electronic form.
(3) Where a marriage is registered under section 53D(10)(a), the entry must be available to—
(a)the Registrar General, and
(b)the superintendent registrar in whose registration district the marriage was solemnized,
immediately after the entry has been made.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2021/9780348220308
Cheers
Guy

The new registration process is based on that which has been used for many years to register Civil Partnerships - there is no physical register kept. One of the key arguments for the changes was to reduce costs by cancelling the use of all the registers ( 84,000 of them apparently) currently in use.

The "marriage register" is now to be the records held in the registration computer (i.e. "in electronic form" ) .

A document called a "marriage schedule" will be issued after the giving of notice (or a corresponding one after banns) to allow the marriage to go ahead- this is signed by the couple, celebrant and witnesses at the ceremony to confirm the marriage took place and afterwards it has to be deposited at the registration office. The details are entered onto the computer and that becomes the official record of the marriage. Certificates are then printed from the computer record.

So couples can still have their "signing" moment during the ceremony, but on a piece of paper rather than in a register book, but they probably won't get a certificate on the day.

Whether the marriage schedules will be archived, or made easily available to view in the future, who knows ( I doubt it).



The process is best explained in the explanatory memorandum which accompanied the legislation.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/20 ... 308_en.pdf

Being old school, I can't help thinking it is a shame to stop using the registers. I understand the reasoning but where's the romance?

I feel confident that in view of the requirement to be able to reproduce the marriage document or (as the case may be) the marriage schedule in respect of the marriage has been lost or destroyed churches and possibly even superintendent registrars will retain the marriage document or marriage schedule.
I also expect and that many of these may even turn up for sale in later years in the same way as marriage licences do.
Cheers
Guy