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02 August 2011

The Clerk Might Not Know I Was Married Before

Marriage records will not always indicate if one of the parties has been married before. Some marriage records may list the groom as "Mr." and the brides as "Miss" or "Mrs," but others will make absolutely no distinction.

Do not assume that if one of the parties had been married that a subsequent will make a note of it. Some records may indicate the bride is a widow, but others will not.

For this reason, unless there's a statement to the contrary, don't always conclude that the last name of the bride is her name at birth. It could very well be the last name of a previous husband.

1 comment:

  1. I just lived that! Great grandfather's marriage certificate had his mother's maiden name listed. When I started searching for her marriage certificate to gg grandfather I was struggling after quite a bit of searching it was discovered he was her 3rd marriage!

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