Discover your Welsh ancestor's marriage, or intention to marry, in the historic county of Caernarvonshire. The records reveal your ancestors names, marital status, and when and where they got married. You may even be able to find out if the marriage didn’t go ahead.
Discover your Welsh ancestor's marriage, or intention to marry, in the historic county of Caernarvonshire. The records reveal your ancestors names, marital status, and when and where they got married. You may even be able to find out if the marriage didn’t go ahead.
Banns
Transcript
Each record comprises a transcript and black and white image of the original register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:
First name(s)
Last name
Spouse’s first name(s)
Spouse’s last name
Banns year
Banns date
Parish
Spouse’s parish
Marriage year
Marriage place
County
Country
Image
The image may contain additional details, including:
Marital status
Spouse’s marital status
Dates of three banns
Officiating minister
Marriages
Transcript
Each record comprises a transcript and black and white image of the original register. The amount of information listed varies, but the records usually include a combination of the following information about your ancestor:
First name(s)
Last name
Age
Birth year
Spouse’s first name(s)
Spouse’s last name
Spouse’s age
Spouse’s birth year
Marriage year
Marriage date
Father’s first name(s)
Father’s last name
Spouse’s father’s first name(s)
Spouse’s father’s last name
Parish
County
Country
Image
The image may reveal additional details, including:
Rank or occupation
Marital status
Spouse’s marital status
Father’s occupation or rank
Spouse’s father’s occupation or rank
Banns or licence
Officiating minister
Names of witnesses
Please note that the earlier images are in Latin.
Caernarvonshire
While researching your family history it is essential to remember that county and town borders can change. In 1972, local governments in Wales were reorganised by the Local Government (Wales) Act. Under this act, the administrative county of Caernarvonshire was abolished two years later. The administrative entity of Caernarvonshire was briefly revived in 1996, when the unitary area of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire was formed. It was quickly renamed Gwynedd, however. Since then, Caernarvonshire has been split between the unitary authorities of Gwynedd to the west and Conwy to the east.
Today, Caernarvonshire is one of 13 historic counties in Wales. Also spelled Caernarfonshire, it’s bordered by Denbighshire, Merionethshire, and Anglesey. Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, is located in Caernarvonshire.
Banns
An ancient legal tradition, banns are an announcement in church of a couple’s intention to marry. The reading of the banns provides an opportunity for anybody to put forward a reason why the marriage may not lawfully take place. Banns must be read in the parish (or parishes) in which the couple lives and in the parish they will marry, on three Sundays in the three months before the wedding, unless the couple got a licence. It’s important to note that banns only state an intention to marry; the posting of the banns doesn’t necessarily mean the marriage took place.
Marriage records
Marriage records are an essential part of researching your family history. There are records where the parents of the bride and groom are listed, and these are often the key to finding out the names of the generation before. Occasionally, ages of the couple may be listed as "full" or “of age” rather than as a figure. This was a customary way of noting that they were over the required age of 21. If the bride or groom was under the age of 21, “with consent of parents” is noted in the record.