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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