LIST 28 - MARRIAGES - BRIDES NAME ORDER

 
 
There were 3,130 marriages recorded during this decade, which  is around one 
thousand more than in the previous decade.
 
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
               date
               church
               bride 
                    family name
                    Christian name
                    year and ship of arrival
                    civil status at time of marriage
                    age at marriage
               groom 
                    family name
                    Christian name
                    year and ship of arrival
                    civil status at time of marriage
                    age at marriage
 
The marriages are listed in alphabetical order on the name of the bride.
 
A slash (/) after the family name indicates that the groom was  a widower or 
the bride was widow. In the case of brides, her maiden name  if known, preceeds 
the slash and her previous married  name succeeds the slash.
 
The  ship  of  arrival  of  335  (10.5%)  brides  has  not   been identified, 
130 referring to 1829 and 1830 marriages,  indicating the  scarcity of cross 
reference material after 1828, as well  as 44  who  claim  to be colonial born 
but  no  collaborating  birth details have been found.
 
Sometimes the marriage register records a ship of arrival but the name  cannot  
be located on the relevant shipping  indent.  These tend to be indicated by the 
absence of a year of arrival.
 
With  regard to the brides, the arrival status of 91%  have  been found.  There 
were 1,519 convicts or former convicts  (48%),  441 came free (14%) and 861 were 
colonial born (28%).
 
There  were 28 brides who are described in the marriage  register as  a "free 
woman". Unfortunately it is not certain whether  this means; came free, free 
by servitude or born free.
 
There  were twenty eight duplicate entries, these are marked  with an asterix 
(*) and two triplicate entries (**)! 
 
Whilst some parish registers began to record the age of the bride and groom, 
in most instances this is a computed figure from  ages recorded  on  shipping 
indents, death details,  census  &  muster details.  Therefore they must be 
treated as an estimate at  best. Only for the colonial born is it calculated 
from a known date  of birth. 
 
The age of 86% of the brides has been calculated, but as they say "the  past  
is a different country, they  do  things  differently there". Colonial born 
Rebecca Hall and Susannah Wybrow were  only 12 years old (with known recorded 
birth dates) when they married, a further 9 were 13 years, 37 were 14 years, 
91 were 15 years and 195  were 16 years old. At the other age extreme, Sarah  
Flintoff and Jane Peck claimed to be 71 and widow Eliza Murphy who arrived in 
1790 aboard the 'Lady Juliana' claimed to be 73!
 
The 1828 Census was invaluable in identifying the brides in  this decade  (as 
indeed in was for the grooms) but the  research  has been  unable to determine 
the rational for when a women would  be recorded under her married name, her 
maiden name, or the name she arrived in the colony under. For example of the 
48 married  women who  arrived aboard the "Woodman"  of 1823 recorded in  the  
1828 Census,  only  39 used their married  surname.  Catherine  Kirwan managed 
to be recorded under her current married name, her former married  name, and 
her maiden name! And then there are the  women who  use  the  surname  of a man 
to whom  they  are  not  legally married,  these are particularly difficult to 
unravel unless  the woman has a Christian name which is either unusual or 
uncommon.
 
Another issue which arises when attempting to identify brides  is in  regard  
to  the shipping indents.  Married  women  are  often recorded   under  both  
their  maiden  and  married   names   but unfortunately  the  two names are only 
identified as  an  "alias" making it unclear which is which. It would have been 
so much more helpful if they had identified the maiden name with a "nee".


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