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About Dorset Marriage Index 1538-1856
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While most marriages were by banns, some were by licence. Whether the marriage was by banns or licence, the record is of the actual marriage, not of the reading of banns or of the issuing of the licence. As well as the names of the married couple, the witness names are also included, so that the index contains over half a million names in total. Parishes covered Click here for parishes covered by Dorset Marriage Index What the index contains This dataset is rather more than an index, and essentially contains abstracts of the original entries. The Dorset Marriage Index records contain the following fields:
Surname, standardised; Surname, transcribed; (Male & Female) Surname, standardised is a standardised version of the surname - Surname, transcribed is the surname as recorded in the register; eg HERRING for HEERING, MACKRELL for MACKERILL, TOLMAN for TOLEMAN. In the majority of cases the two surnames are the same. The Dorset Marriage Records are searchable by both these surnames, while the NameX option allows searching on many other possible surname variants. Forename (Male & Female) Many forenames are abbreviated in the register. The abbeviated versions are preserved here, but searching can be on the full forename or on the abbreviated versions. The NameX option also pemits searching on other abbreviations, spelling variants and diminutives. Male X, Female X An 'X' in either of these fields indicates that the party 'signed' the register with their mark, so indicating probable illiteracy. Status (Male & Female) The Status fields can show different types of information about the person, including (but not restricted to):
The Parish is normally that where the party was residing at the time of the marriage. However, there are some cases where the Status entry appears to indicate where the party was staying, possibly temporarily (if indicated by 'sojourner' - see Help on Searching), and the Parish value shows the permanent place of residence. In some cases it is not clear which of two different places named in the Status and Parish fields is the permanent place and which the temporary place of residence. In the majority of cases (and the vast majority for the bride) the parish of residence is the place where the marriage took place, as shown in the Register field. In such cases, the Parish field shows 'of this parish', or similar wording. County (Male & Female) The county for the Parish (Male or Female, as applicable), or the country where the parish is not in England or Wales. 96% of the marriages of the male partners are from Dorset, and over 99% of the females. Of the non-Dorset participants, two thirds of the males are from Devon, Somerset or Wiltshire and 84% of the females. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the time of the Napoleonic Wars) there were more than 500 marriages involving soldiers stationed in Dorset. In very few cases is it stated where the soldier actually came from, and the county has correspondingly been left blank. Year The year of the marriage. For pre-1752 marriages the year is shown as New Style. Date This is the actual date recorded in the register, with all pre-1752 years given as new style. An asterisk after the date means that the date was unclear and best effort was made to interpret it. Register The Register field contains the name of the register from which the record of the marriage has been abstracted. In all cases this field contains a placename, normally of a parish. The registers are in most cases parish registers - so the Register field contains the name of the parish where the marriage took place - but there are Registers for peculiar courts (see Help on Searching for details) and for Quaker Meetings, eg Quaker Dorset Meetings - Wimborne. Note that the parish of Stockland, which has been in Devon since 1842, is a Dorset parish so far as the Dorset Marriage Index is concerned. Register County In principle all the register entries should refer to Dorset, but for completeness a Register County field is provided Witnesses The Witnesses field generally contains the names of the witnesses but in the cases of marriages by licence it contains the name of the bondsmen or, in a single instance, bondswoman. All names appearing in the Witnesses field have been included in the database index. Many witness names contain an "x" between the forename and the surname. This indicates that the witness "signed" the register with their mark, indicating probable illiteracy. Notes The Notes field contains miscellaneous additional information, which may include:
Acknowledgements The Dorset Marriage Index 1538-1856 is made available on British Origins with the permission of Somerset & Dorset Family History Society, who retain all rights to the Index. The work done by members of the Society in compiling the Index is gratefully acknowledged. © 2009 OMS Services Ltd and Somerset & Dorset Family History Society
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