Welcome to the second part of “What can be found on a…” – the series where we present a record and show you how much information can be obtained from it. Let’s jump into it!

Image: John Loftus and Ellen Noone marriage certificate married March 1911, district, Swinford – Date accessed: 20/06/2021. Source: irishgenealogy.ie

Here is an example of an Irish marriage record:

So, what do the numbers on the cert tell us. (NOTE: Some of the below points will include more info than others…)

  1. The place where they were married. In this case it is the Church in Bohola.(which I hope to visit at some point!!!)
  2. The registrars district.
  3. The union of the district.
  4. The county.
  5. Entry number.
  6. The date of the marriage.
  7. The name of the bride and groom.
  8. The ages of the bride and groom (if under “full age”, which is 21 it’ll typically state the age. But in some cases the ages of the bride and groom will be given as well)
  9. The condition of the bride and groom (whether bachelor/widower for a man or spinster/widow for a woman)
  10. The occupation of the bride and groom.
  11. The residence of the bride and groom.
  12. Father’s name of the bride and groom.
  13. The occupation of the fathers of the bride and groom.
  14. The priest that solemnized the marriage.
  15. The signatures (in some cases) of the bride and groom.
  16. Witnesses of the marriage.
  17. Date of registration.
  18. Signature of registrar.

I hope you enjoyed reading and to finish this post – what’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen on a marriage cert? For me it was the fact that the example I used up above was not his first marriage, I was shocked to discover! Drop a comment below or tweet me.