Genealogy Forum UK

Can someone help clear up a misunderstanding between 2 family historians?

My understanding is that a marriage certificate is a transcription from the parish registers and that the "signatures" on the certificates themselves are not really the signatures of the bride and groom and witnesses. My friend thinks the signatures are real.

Am I wrong?

Some times the bride and groom mark with an x, not all people could read or write.

Example

Register note Bride & witness 2 sign X.

Sure, I understand that, thanks, but what I was meaning was where there are signatures, are they those of the bride and groom or are they the handwriting of whomever transcribed the entry from the parish register?

If the bride and groom were capable of writing they actually signed them selves.

I'm sorry. I'm still not making myself clear. I understand that they would sign the register, but my question is about the certificate I get from the GRO. That, as I understand it, is a transcription of the parish register. With the certificates I have it certainly looks as though the entire certificate is written by one person, including the "signatures". Am I wrong?

I can't see how hand written transcriptions can be signed by the original parties which is why it's good to be able to actually see the Register.
I'm sure the time will come when all the Registers can be digitalised and picture copies of them made (as some of them already have been) and distributed for genealogical and other purposes but I think the reason why the copies that we currently receive are done in the way they are is because they are 'official' documents with important uses and have to be in some way guaranteed as accurate, hence they have to be written by a qualified Registrar, which is also why they're so expensive.

Thanks SRD. That was my point, that the certificates appear to me to be handwritten transcripts, but I've not seen that confirmed. Indeed, digitised copies of the registers would be the ideal. I'm sure a lot of transcription errors occur.

Hi

If you order from GRO it will never have the original signatures on it; it will usually be a copy of the transcription made around the time of the marriage, but if that is hard to read it may be a modern transcription of that.

If you order from the local registrar then it may be a copy of the original, or it may be a transcription, depending on how they do it.

If it was a church wedding then you should be fairly safe asking for a photocopy from the archives where the parish register is held.

Thanks. That was as I thought...