Where can I find a marriage record for James Monro and Catharine Brown?

DMonroe3

I have scoured Family Search and it's affiliates as well as ScotlandsPeople without results.

James was born between 1783 and 1785 via a cemetery record showing an age of 38 in 1822. It seems he was a spirit dealer in Edinburgh.

Catharine was born in 1792 at St. Cuthberts in Edinburgh and passed in 1826.

A daughter, Margaret Monro, was born in Edinburgh in 1816 with a son James Fraser in 1820. There may be another son, John, born in 1815 in Aberdeen.

I have searched for a marriage record using guestimated dates based on the childrens births.

Any thoughts or help would be greatlly appreciated.

Paul W

@DMonroe3

Sadly, you are quite likely never be able to find the marriage record. I generally find Scotland burial records impossible to find, the marriage records quite difficult and even baptism / birth records rather "hit and miss", for items up to 1855.

Although rather "frowned upon" by the Church of Scotland clergy, the practice of an "informal" marriage (perhaps which took place in a private home or non-conformist establishment) was not illegal in Scotland, so - sometimes to save on the costs incurred by a CoS ceremony - couples often married elsewhere and hence there was no record of the event.

Having said that, even the parish registers often omit marriage events, for some reason. I have found records of "proclamations" (which I believe were similar to banns), but no date for the ceremony itself - even though one probably did actually take place in the established church, or the local church of one of the parties involved (if the couple lived in different parishes).

DMonroe3

Paul.

I was afraid something like that. In reality, I guess in reality, it's amazing that we find any records of anything prior to statutory requirements.

Thank you for the response...