Eastcombe (Gloucestershire) Marriages 1866-1881

Information collected and transcribed by Ron Downing © April 1998

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following transcription was made from rather poor photocopies of typescript pages taken, I understand, from the "Hammond Collection" in the Gloucester Library. The readability of the data was affected, somewhat, by the photocopies being made onto A4 pages from the original "foolscap". There was subsequent loss, on a few pages, of Book numbers, Entry numbers, and Dates, due to some of this data being off the edge of the page. The transcription was made into MS Access, sorted by date, and saved to MS Word Rich Text Format from a "report" design. In this form I was able to position partially dated entries by means of Book and Entry numbers. The list of marriages provides an insight into the relationships between families, and more than that, it shows the change of occupations over the period of time coinciding with the deterioration of the local woollen industries. I am led to believe that the original Marriage Books are held at the National Archives in London, but how Mr F. T. Hammond obtained access to the data is unclear. However, we are greatly indebted to that indefatigable local historian and genealogist.

See also F.T. Hammond's own Notes which accompanied his transcriptions.

Additional Notes from F.T. Hammond

In common with most of the smaller non-conformist churches in the Stroud district the church building at Eastcombe was licenced for marriages which necessitated visits of the local Registrar of Marriages as the Authorised Person. In these circumstances it was rare that a complete copy of any marriage register belonging to the church was kept.

The transcription represents copies of the entries taken from the marriage books completed by the visiting registrars at the time; and readily accounts for any lack of sequence in the serial numbers of the entries. In explanation of the entries commencing with Book 10, this was the earliest book in the hands of the nearest registrar (Chalford). As there were fewer marriages in the country churches than in the immediate district of Stroud, the first Chalford book was not completed and returned to the Superintendent Registrar until nine others from the surrounding district had already been completed and so numbered in order of completion.

F.T.H.

[Transcribed by Ron Downing in April 1998]