Marriage Laws, Rites, Records and Customs: Was Your Ancestor Really Married?

Colin R Chapman, 116 pages

This work gives details of the laws covering marriage from the 16th-19th centuries and how to interpret them.

For the first time, details of courtship, marriage and divorce throughout the British Isles, and associated records which appeal to social and family historians, are encompassed in one affordable, excellently indexed book. Nearly 200 marriage and divorce laws of Church and State are mentioned, with precise references to original legislation. Henry VIII, Hardwicke, Lyndhurst, Box, Rose, Russell, Brougham, civil registration and nuptial canons are all included. Christian and Jewish rites and ceremonies are described with their religious and traditional customs.