Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 5:03 pm
Post subject: Parents' names in civil marriages 1808-1825.
I have been finding numerous errors and inaccuracies in civil registers of marriages during the early Napoleonic Code (from about 1808 to 1825). Especially errors involving the names of the groom and bride's parents.
Meanwhile, the regular church books for marriages for that same time period seldom record the groom and bride's parents' names. At least not until the 1820's or so.
Since the parish priests were usually assigned the task of keeping civil registers during that period, and they weren't in the habit of recording the spouses' parents' names in the church books, is it possible they sometimes guessed at or made up names?
One theory I'm getting is that as the priests copied the civil marriages from whatever they recorded for those marriages in their church books, they tried to recall whatever they could. Then perhaps they resorted to guessing or making up names, in order to complete the civil marriage forms.
I think I'm experiencing error rates of as high as 50%. On the one hand, having something which shows the parents' names can be very helpful. But the errors are throwing my research way off course, trying to search for birth records with parents who don't exist.
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