Marriage Certificates: 189 Years of Civil Registration in Swansea
Marriage Certificates: 189 Years of Civil Registration in Swansea Originally published in The Bay Magazine, August 2015. Revised and expanded: November 2026 Introduction: More Than Just a Marriage On 1 July 2026 , England and Wales marked the 189th anniversary of civil registration. It was on 1 July 1837 that a new system for recording births, marriages and deaths came into operation, creating records that remain invaluable to family historians today. In our previous article on birth certificates, we explored the early days of civil registration in Swansea and discovered how a single birth record could lead us through generations of family history. This time, we turn our attention to marriage certificates . A marriage certificate is much more than a record of two people becoming husband and wife. It may reveal their ages, occupations, addresses, fathers' names and the identities of witnesses who attended the ceremony. Sometimes these details can lead to discoveries that we never ex...
