Religious marriage records in Spanish - two types
To my knowledge, there are two types of religious marriage records. One is the Marriage Investigation record (Información Matrimonial) and the second is the actual record of marriage. As I was indexing a batch of Marriage Investigations (Información Matrimonial) the form which is provided for completion is requesting the data for a consummated marriage. Since there is no consummated marriage at this stage of the process, there is no date of marriage to record. The Información Matrimonial record is an excellent record because parents and witnesses information is usually found here. This type of record is to determine if the parties are suitable for marriage and shows that the three public banns of the pending marriage have been published. In addition, these records provide other very interesting pieces of information, sometimes including rich genealogical information.
May I suggest that the form for indexing Información Matrimonial be revised to capture information that is pertinent to this type of record rather than the actual marriage record?
The civil registry marriage records do not have these two types of documents.