MARRIAGES - ST MATTHEWS WINDSOR ROMAN CATHOLIC
The first Catholic parish established outside of St Marys Sydney was
St Matthews Windsor in 1835. The first marriage was performed in the
new parish on the 8th January 1835 by the Reverend Father Christopher
Vincent Dowling. Up until the end of 1840 there were 53 marriages
performed.
The information recorded for each marriage is as follows:
date
groom
family name
Christian name
year and ship of arrival
civil status at time of marriage
age at marriage
parish
bride
family name
Christian name
year and ship of arrival
civil status at time of marriage
age at marriage
parish
consent given by
officiating minister
reference number
The marriages are listed in chronological order.
Information recorded on the register but not included here
includes the names of the witnesses to the marriage (Interested
readers are urged to consult the original register for this
information).
Disppointingly none of the Catholic registers record the "with the
consent of" field, however for the purposes of this work, if either
or both parties were serving convicts it is assumed they needed the
Governor's consent.
It should be pointed out that 'year and ship of arrival', 'civil
status at time of marriage' and 'age at marriage' for both bride and
groom are all "value added" additions researched by this work to
complement the church register. As explained above the age at
marriage is a derived figure.
Of the grooms, 33 (62%) have been identified and for the brides 31
(59%). The consent of the Governor was required in 21 cases (38%).
Reverend Father Dowling was replaced in 1836 by Reverend Father James
Vincent Corcoran, who in turn was replaced in 1839 the Reverend
Father John Barry. The Reverend Father William Ullathorne
performed severel marriages in 1835 and Reverend Father James
McEncroe performed one in 1837.
There were no marriages in 1838 and only one in 1839 which would tend
to indicate that perhaps these records have become lost.
The reference number would direct the reader to the entry in the
original parish register. The numbers commenced from 1 and ran to 53
by the end of the decade.
There was one marriage in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which
has no entry on this parish register. It is very likely that it
results from a typographical error and relates to a post 1840
marriage.
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on
the name would be made on Lists 3 or 4 using code "SMWR" from which
the date of marriage would be retrieved, secondly using the
appropriate date, the marriage would then be located on this list.
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