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Rebecca Probert

Marriage Law for Genealogists: The Definitive Guide …what everyone tracing their family history needs to know about where, when, who and how their English and Welsh ancestors married Paperback – September 4, 2012

by Rebecca Probert (Author)

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Marriage Law for Genealogists: The Definitive Guide ...what everyone tracing their family history needs to know about where, when, who and how their English and Welsh ancestors married
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The indispensable guide for all family historians tracing the marriages of their English and Welsh ancestors between 1600 and the twentieth century. Based upon years of painstaking primary research, including new studies of thousands of couples, this book explains clearly and concisely why, how, when and where people in past centuries married. Family historians just starting out will find advice on where ‘missing’ marriages are most likely to be found, while those who are already well advanced in tracing their family tree will be able to interpret their discoveries to better understand their ancestors’ motivations. How, for example, should we interpret our ancestors’ decisions to marry in a particular form or place, or at a particular time? Did their choices make them exceptional or normal for their day? Might their marriages have been bigamous, clandestine, or void? Or might they have conscientiously followed the rules set down by Church and State? Professor Rebecca Probert explains the mistakes and confusion found in most genealogical guides, and thoroughly rewrites how family historians should understand their ancestors’ lives in this most personal and universal of areas.

Print length

162 pages
Language

English
Publication date

September 4, 2012
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.37 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0956384714
ISBN-13

978-0956384713
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rebecca Probert is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of the marriage laws of England and Wales, a subject on which she has written extensively. Currently Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, she read law at St Anne's College, Oxford, took her LLM at University College, London, worked as a researcher at the Law Commission, and has lectured in family law since 1997. She has spent many years deeply engrossed in the large-scale genealogical case-studies which underpin the conclusions of her academic work and of this book. Her many TV and radio appearances include the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, Heirhunters and Harlots, Heroines & Housewives.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Takeaway (Publishing) (September 4, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 162 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0956384714
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0956384713
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.37 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,738,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #557 in Marriage Law (Books)
- #12,110 in Genealogy (Books)

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57 ratings

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Valerie

Useful, authoritative and readable...

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2016

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I'm giving this book a 5-star rating for a couple of different reasons. First, from all I can tell this is a very definitive source on marriage law in England and Wales. The author is a law professor--not a genealogist. She has clearly done extensive research not only into the law itself but into local marriage records in various parts of England and Wales. It's one thing to have a genealogist tell you that "at that time the law required xyz." It's quite another to have a law professor who specialize in marriage law in that country tell you.

Second, the book is very readable. Ms. Probert gives numerous examples of questions she has received and really speaks to the questions we have as genealogists. It's not only useful, but interesting. That's a big bonus! As a corollary to this point, you may be surprised at what was legally mandated long ago. Not only do I know that my ancestors married in 1806 in Shropshire, but I now also know that they most likely married in the morning, as that had been part of canon law since 1604. (The Marriage Act 1823 made clergy who solemnized marriages outside of the hours between 8 am and midday guilty of a felony!)

The book is organized to make it easy to find information, and I expect to utilize it frequently as my British research progresses.

One person found this helpful

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RegencyMiss

A must have for a researcher's library

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014

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I am not a genealogist. I am an amateur researcher into marriage law in the 18th and early 19th century in England.Ms. Probert presents her material in a way that even a non academic and non professional genealogist can understand it. Her examples are clear . This small book is worth three or four others I have on my shelf. So much information in one place makes this book an essential addition to any library of those interested in the marriage laws of England. I do think it a definitive guide on the subject.

One person found this helpful

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MorganJ.

Excellent addition.

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2016

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An excellent source of information about marriage laws and regulations, customs and regional differences. In addition the author gives the reader her personal website and offers to help with difficulties, unusual situations, brick walls etc. She also asks that her readers send her details of any unusual or amusing stories arising from their research so that she might consider them for her next work. Definitely a worthwhile addition to one's library.

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Sharon Gorley

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2013

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Every Genealogist should read this book. It takes you past the marriage myth's into the realities of different times. It will keep you from making decisions based on untruths in your family trees.

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MAVincent

A must have for those who have English ancestors

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2014

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This guide was very helpful as I did research on "The Ancestors, Siblings, and Descendants of Joshua Bowers (1830-1916) and Mary Ann (Tillotson) Bowers (1834-1919)".

One person found this helpful

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H. Clark Dean

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2014

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Of genealogical interest.

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Kindle Customer

A Good Book to Have

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2013

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It's just what it says it is. Not everything is the way you intuitively think it is. This book explains it all.

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alexandria1121

Easy to read guide for the perplexed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2018

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Very useful and easy to read. She corrects a number of extremely common but wrong ideas about marriage in the past (such as the idea that living together without marriage was common, or that marriages which did not comply in all respects with the 1753 Act were void, or that it was forbidden for Christians and Jews to marry each other). The book is divided into sections covering who could get married and who they could marry, what ages they were likely to be, when and if they needed parental consent, where they could marry (generally in a church but if you were one of the few people who could get a special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury you could marry anywhere) and explains clearly and succinctly how the law changed at various times. There are special short sections on religious minorities and how the legal status of their marriages changed. If you find your ancestor seems to have married twice to the same person and the dates are close together one may be a legally invalid religious ceremony and the other a Church of England ceremony to make the marriage legal.

One interesting factor which I am still unclear about is that, surprisingly, only in 1929 was 16 set as the absolute minimum age for marriage, and any marriage contracted by someone under that age made automatically void. Previously the age was 12 for girls and 14 for boys, and in fact if a person was under those ages the marriage would not necessarily be invalid - it was voidable, but if the couple continued to live together after the girl was 12 and the boy 14 the marriage was valid. A case from as recently as 1894 of an 11 year old marrying a 22 year old is cited. Yet the age of sexual consent was raised to 16 in 1885. Were they supposed to wait until they were 16 to consummate their marriage? We do not know. (I have subsequently solved this conundrum. The 1885 act only made unlawful sexual intercourse - i.e. intercourse outside marriage - illegal under the age of 16. If there had been a valid marriage then the age was 12 for the girl and 14 for the boy, after that they could legally consummate the marriage.)

4 people found this helpful

Anit Piquère

A first-rate book, debunking some myths (hopefully for good)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2012

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This book for genealogists, based on solid academic research, refutes several ideas that some genealogists seem to have taken on board, such as the idea of 'Common Law' marriage before 1754. Having spent many years in family history research myself, I have never found any evidence for common law marriage. Indeed, the power of the church courts, in which a woman, or both a man and a woman, could be punished for fornication, particularly if a child was begotten in the process, has always suggested otherwise, and I was therefore not surprised by the author's findings.

The world of our ancestors becomes more and more different to our own world the further back we go, and it is important to understand the conventions by which our ancestors lived, particularly regarding marriage, which is a central feature of family history research. This book fills a gap in the market that has been waiting to be filled for some time and I would recommend it to all serious family history researchers.

13 people found this helpful

north

this book will keep you right!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2018

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this professor knows her stuff, this book was ten years in the making and the research is extensive, you are left in no doubt as to the facts!.
she bust the myths about " broomstick " marriages, they did not exist, she gives rational explanations as to why certain myths should not exist and gives fact after fact based on her long experience of the law in this area , if you buy one book on genealogy which keeps you on the right track , this is the one.

DRM

A very useful aid for any family history researcher

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2012

Verified Purchase

This book is just what I needed to augment my Genealogical research.

Prof. Probert clearly knows her subject, as evidenced by the scope of Family Law publications listed on her Amazon Author's page. She is no stuffy academic. Extensively researched, the book is written in plain English, and is well ordered. It achieves that elusive balance of being both thorough and concise.

With chapter titles of Why, Who, How, When and Where, it dispels all the myths and mumbo jumbo about early marriages still to be found quoted in contemporary Genealogical publications. It is punctuated with "Key facts" that clarify the realities of marriage law in England and Wales since the early 17th century, which is as far back as most amateur genealogists can reasonably hope to reach.

It directly answers most of the questions about marriages that are likely to be raised by real family history researchers, as well as providing some very interesting (to me at least) statistics. Recognizing that these statistics were presented as samples to illustrate the specific points being made, this is an area that I personally feel might have been usefully extended.

20 people found this helpful

Liz

It is easy to read & gives very clear details of the ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is a really essential book for family historians. It is easy to read & gives very clear details of the numerous different laws through the ages concerning English marriages. Some laws were short lived & quickly repealed or replaced by new ones but it is useful to know just when this happened so as to relate the information to one's own ancestors. This guide explains why many people married well out of their home district for example. It is not always enough to search the local parish registers. The chapters are broken down into easy to find relevant parts. It does not include Scottish marriage laws however.

3 people found this helpful

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