Leitrim-Roscommon

Does anyone know of any reason why a marriage may not have been registered?

I'm just back from Dublin today, where I visited the records office; my starting point for searching was to look for the marriage of James McGowan and Ellen Rooney.

When I looked through the index books, there was no entry under both names in the year I needed. I also checked the years previous and after to no avail.

On my G-grandfather's birth certificate, it says that James and Ellen were married on the 4th Jan 1892 in Manorhamilton. However, extensive searching has revealed nothing.

Does anyone know if I have perhaps made a mistake, in which case it's back on a plane to Dublin in the near future??

Did you check the handwritten 'late registrations' at the back of the index books?

Was the marriage Catholic or Protestant? They are recorded in separate index books at the GRO.

A search of a 2 year time span is quite narrow, I'd extend it a bit further either side of the year in question. Another possibility (without casting any aspersions) is perhaps the marriage date was 'tweaked' to fit with a birth!

Did you check under Gowan, Magowan, Macgowan?

I'd be surprise at a non-registration by 1892, but it is possible. Certainly in the earlier years of registration, a lot of BMDs went unrecorded.

Have you tried locating the marriage in the church records?

That's all that I can think of at the moment but, on positive note, you may have another visit to our fine city of Dublin to look forward to!

Best of luck anyway.

CA

Thanks for your help, I must admit I was a little unsure of the index books, it being the first time i've looked through them. I did have a look at surname variations, but didn't notice any late registrations, i'll definately be having another look I think.

I might just pay for a search online, and have the certificate posted over to me (if it exists)

The birth thing may be a possibility, the first child that I know of was born in Scotland in 1893, but I have no info on any other children prior to that.

It's a good thing flights to Dublin from Glasgow are only £20 return right now, I can go over as often as I need!!