Marriage Law for Genealogists: The Definitive Guide ...what everyone tracing their family history needs to know about where, when, who and how their English and Welsh ancestors married - Softcover

Probert, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0956384714 ISBN 13: 9780956384713

Publisher: Takeaway (Publishing), 2012

Synopsis

The indispensable guide for all family historians tracing the marriages of their English and Welsh ancestors between 1600 and the twentieth century. Based upon years of painstaking primary research, including new studies of thousands of couples, this book explains clearly and concisely why, how, when and where people in past centuries married. Family historians just starting out will find advice on where ‘missing’ marriages are most likely to be found, while those who are already well advanced in tracing their family tree will be able to interpret their discoveries to better understand their ancestors’ motivations. How, for example, should we interpret our ancestors’ decisions to marry in a particular form or place, or at a particular time? Did their choices make them exceptional or normal for their day? Might their marriages have been bigamous, clandestine, or void? Or might they have conscientiously followed the rules set down by Church and State? Professor Rebecca Probert explains the mistakes and confusion found in most genealogical guides, and thoroughly rewrites how family historians should understand their ancestors’ lives in this most personal and universal of areas.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Probert is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of the marriage laws of England and Wales, a subject on which she has written extensively. Currently Professor of Law at the University of Warwick, she read law at St Anne's College, Oxford, took her LLM at University College, London, worked as a researcher at the Law Commission, and has lectured in family law since 1997. She has spent many years deeply engrossed in the large-scale genealogical case-studies which underpin the conclusions of her academic work and of this book. Her many TV and radio appearances include the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, Heirhunters and Harlots, Heroines & Housewives.

Edition details

• Publisher: Takeaway (Publishing)
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0956384714
• ISBN 13: 9780956384713
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 162