Discover if your ancestors got married in the historic Welsh county of Radnorshire by searching through thousands of marriage and banns records. You may uncover your ancestor’s wedding date, parish, occupation, and father’s name.
Discover if your ancestors got married in the historic Welsh county of Radnorshire by searching through thousands of marriage and banns records. You may uncover your ancestor’s wedding date, parish, occupation, and father’s name.
Each record will provide an image of the original record and a transcript. The amount of detail contained can vary, but you could find out the following about your ancestor:
Banns transcript
Banns image
Images can include additional details such as
Marriage transcript
Marriage image
When available, the image can give you even more valuable information about your ancestor’s wedding:
Radnorshire
Radnorshire is one of 13 historic Welsh counties and a former administrative county. It borders Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Breconshire, and Cardiganshire. The administrative county was created under the Local Government Act 1888 and was abolished two years after the Local Government Act 1972, with its area being transferred to the newly formed county of Powys. Powys was split into three districts, namely, Montgomeryshire, Breconshire, and Radnorshire. When Powys became a unitary authority in 1996, Radnorshire was one of three areas established under a decentralisation scheme. A shire committee made up of councillors elected for electoral divisions within the former district of Radnorshire carries out functions delegated by Powys County Council.
Banns
Banns of marriage, more commonly known simply as the 'banns' or 'bans' (from a Middle English word meaning proclamation, rooted in the Old French), are the public announcement in a Christian parish church of an impending marriage. Their purpose is to prevent invalid marriages by allowing anyone to raise any canonical or civil legal impediment to the marriage. These impediments might include a pre-existing marriage that has neither been dissolved nor annulled, a vow of celibacy, lack of consent, or the couple being related within the prohibited degrees of kinship.
Banns were announced in the home parishes of the parties involved for three Sundays in a row.
Marriage
In the transcripts, the age field at times will list the bride and groom’s age as full instead of giving an exact age. This meant that the individual was of legal age (21 years old or older).
Many of the marriage record images show whether the couple were married by banns of by licence. Marriage licences were created in the 14th century. Couples could obtain a marriage licence for a fee if they wished to waive the banns period. Along with a marriage licence fee, the couples were obligated to sign a declaration stating that there were no lawful impediments to their marriage. There are different reasons why couples married by licence instead of by banns: they may have wanted to get married quickly, show that they could pay for a licence, or marry away from home.
Patronymic naming system
Marriages include records that use the patronymic naming system. This system started in Wales in the 15th century and lasted through to the mid-18th century. It is the practice of using the father’s first name as the child’s surname. Usually, ab or ap was added between the child’s first name and the father’s first name. For example, William Ap David is William son of David. The patronymic naming system can affect your genealogical research. We would recommend searching by your relative’s first name and birth year without the family’s surname. Then narrow your search from those results.
Begin your search broadly with just a name and year.
If needed, you can narrow your results by adding additional search criteria such as an event type, place, or spouse’s name.
Explore the image linked to your ancestor’s transcript. It may provide additional details about your ancestor’s banns or marriage.