Religious

Marriage Authorisations

Jewish marriages need consent of the marriage authorities. The easiest way to obtain these is to take information from the Civil Certificate of Marriage first.

	1873 Record of a Jewish Marriage which took place in Leeds, Yorks.
	The record comes from a Register of Marriages held at London Beth Din.

My Grandparents' Marriage Authorisation from London 1911.

What is the difference between a Jewish Marriage Application and a Civil Marriage Certificate?

Simply, a marriage application is a statement of intent to marry and a request for permission to be granted by the Chief Rabbi.

A civil marriage certificate is proof that two parties were married by an authorised minister.

Below are the marriage application and the civil certificate for the marriage of a couple. You can see the differences for yourself.

	The civil certificate gives the ages of the bride and groom
	It gives the occupations of the parties and that of their fathers
	It gives the names of witnesses and the minister

	The authorisation gives the country of origin of the bride and groom
	It gives the full Hebrew names of the parties, including the names of their fathers
	It gives the names of the groom's brothers, if any, and which of them will be attending the wedding

Jewish Birth Records

I have not, so far found any Jewish bryss records. Births are, of course, recorded civilly after July 1837. To see more about that go to the civil registration page. Jewish newspapers are also a great source of birth announcements. More about that is on the newspapers page.

Jewish Death & Burial Records

Deaths are recorded civilly (see above link). Without a death certificate a burial could not take place. Burial records can be patchy. Burial records are available from c 1880 through either United Synagogues or Federation of Synagogues in London. Other burial records may or may not be available. The information given depends on time frame, largely. Whilst place of origin and number of years in Britain is sometimes stated, it is important to remember that this information is given by an informant, and not necessarily accurate.