Marriages 1754 – 1901

The Marriage Index Project was started a long time ago. The original index was in the form of a giant card index, comprising some 158,000 cards in two large wooden cabinets.  A later microfiche version was made available, but each frame of the microfiche comprised only four of the index cards.  Thus the new index comprised 39,500 frames which represented over 400 microfiche. A decision was made to computerise the data and at the same time to carry out exhaustive quality assurance checks.

It was decided that the results of the new project would be made available in three stages.  The first stage covered the parishes of the Diocese of Bristol and the period from 1813 to 1837; the resulting CD is entitled ‘Marriage Index Vol 8’. The second CD entitled ‘Marriage Index Vol 9’ covers the same parishes but for the period from 1754 to 1813.  The third CD covers the parishes of Bath and North Somerset from 1754 to 1837; this CD is entitled ‘Marriage Index Vol 10’.

Click here to see a map of the area covered by these indexes.

While the cut-off point for most of the Society’s indexing projects has traditionally been 1837 (when Civil Registration commenced), a collaborative pilot project between the Bristol and Gloucester Record Offices, assisted by the Bristol & Avon and Gloucester Family History Societies, yielded an index to marriages for the South Gloucestershire parishes of the Diocese of Bristol covering the period from 1837 to 1901.  This has been published as transcripts with an index under the title ‘Marriage Index Vol 11’.

January 2021