Confused about "District" on marriage cert.

[Nicolaas]

In documenting a family tree with birth, marriage and death certificates from the GRO, I am confused about the interpretation of the contents of the marriage certificates.

On the Birth and Death certificates, both the "Registration district" and the "sub district" are given. That, I think, I understand.

On the marriage certificates, however, I read at the top: "Marriage solemnized at the {registrar Office/ church] in the District of [name of district] in the county of [county name]. At the bottom of the certificate, there is a line saying "Certified to be a true copy ... register of Marriages in the Registration district of [name of district].

Is the "district" referred to at the top of the document the same as what is called the Registration district on the birth and death certificates? And what about the Registration district at the bottom?

I am confused because on most marriage certificates I have, the two "districts" are identical, but not always.
I have for instance a marriage in 1851, registration district "Ashton-under-Lyne", district "Stayley".

Thank you for any clarification of this issue.

Nicolaas

[Kiltpin]

Well the districts will be different if you go to a different district office from the one that originally issued the certificate.

Regards

Kiltpin

[stepives]

Sub reg districts are usually a sub division of the reg dist.

That is, smaller towns, areas and viilages, or part of the reg distrct.

It the actual reg district that should be given when ordering certs, unless sub reg it's asked for.

As a rule of thumb, depending on the person who registers the event, it is usually the nearest registry office to the town or village where the event occurs, where there is a registry office.

Of course, there are anomalies, where the village or town is close to the county border, so the reg district could be in the next county, as in many cases in Buckinghamshire, as I've found out. Half a mile either way, the reg district swings between Aylesbury & Wycombe, in Bucks.

If the folks are in the census, check the census to see what the reg district is.

Steve.

[Peter Goodey]

The question was about a marriage certificate and sub-districts should not be relevant.

In most of the marriage certificates that I've seen there is only one district listed. In a few cases the register entry (as opposed to the certification area of the form), provides for the entry of a district. There is scope for error here.

But do not confuse "registration district" with "district church". They are completely different things. In this case there was indeed a district church for Staley which was indeed in the registration district of Ashton-under-Lyne.

I would want to see the certificate to be sure but I strongly suspect that in this case "district" actually referred to a district church.

The marriage register used for register office marriages and "registrar attended" church marriages, was different from that used in the established church. The register office form contained provision for entering the district.

[geneius]

Maybe this will also help.....Have a look at freebmd.org.uk


Marriages Sep 1851 (>99%)

SIDEBOTHAM James Ashton 20 48

Click on Ashton ( now Ashton under Lyne) at the end of the sentence you can click here, you should then see a list of villages including Stayley ( now Staleybridge) and how they made up the area of Ashton

[Peter Goodey]

What are you saying, Geneius?

Who is Sidebotham?

I don't think there’s any doubt that Staley was a civil parish (not just a village) in the Ashton under Lyne registration district. There was also at one time a sub-district called Staley.

The question is about the word 'district' appearing twice and with two different places.

The words "Marriage solemnized at the {registrar Office/ church] in the District of [name of district]..." are from the register portion of the certificate.

The words "Certified to be a true copy..." are from the certification part of the certificate.

Most marriage certificates I've seen do not include "in the District of..." in the heading. I suggested (but I'm not sure) that this wording was unique to the register used by the Superintendent Registrar. I also wondered if it might refer to a district church but on reflection I suspect not.

In the absence of fuller specific information about the marriage, I suspect a clerical error.

[Nicolaas]

Here is the marriage certificate that has me confused.

Nicolaas

[Peter Goodey]

What the pre-printed register actually says is "Marriage solemnized at...in the ...of...in the County of..."

As I originally suspected, this is referring to a district church.

See GenUKI https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/chs/stalybridge.html

"Stalybridge: St. Paul (Church of England). The district church for the township of Stayley from 1840"

A district church is nothing at all to do with the registration district. In ecclesiastical terms, Stayley was a district within a much larger parish. As you can see from the GenUKI page, the situation changed many times as the church reacted to changing population levels.