Discover if your British ancestors were married in historic Yorkshire in the Yorkshire bishop’s transcripts of marriages. Find out their name and the name of their spouse as well as when and where they were married by searching more than 1.2 million records.
Each record contains a transcript and an image of the original record. The information contained can vary but you could find out the following about your ancestor:
Name
Name of spouse
Place of marriage
Date of marriage
Historic county
There are over 1.2 million marriage records from the Borthwick Institute for Archives, covering the whole of Yorkshire. Yorkshire, Britain’s biggest county, is in the north of England. Historically the county was divided into three Ridings - North Easte and West. The word “riding” comes from the old Danish “Threthingr” meaning a third.
The historic Ridings were abolished in 1974.
Bishop’s transcripts were abbreviated copies of the parish records sent to the Diocesan bishop several times a year. They can be an invaluable source of genealogical information when the original record has not survived.
Parish records were made mandatory by the Church of England in 1537. With many starting the following year, they are the most comprehensive source of information about births, marriages and deaths that took place before the introduction of civil registration in 1837.
The records cover Church of England parishes but between 1754 and 1837 all marriages, regardless of religious denomination, had to take place in a Church of England parish. The only exceptions to this rule were weddings within the Quaker and Jewish faiths, where separate arrangements existed. Those with money could apply for a licence, where, on payment of a fee, the banns could be waived once a declaration was signed that the marriage could legally go ahead.
From records in the custody of the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York.