Frustration!

Question

I have been doing a detailed search through a mid-18th century church register in Austrian Empire and found a marriage record where the groom’s name and father is given as is typical, but the bride only has a given name, with the record blank where her father’s name should be. It does say she is a daughter, and a dispensation for 3rd degree consanguinity was granted. I have not yet looked through the baptismal register, but women’s surnames were often omitted.

Omissions are extremely uncommon in this register!

Comments

The dispensation narrows it down, doesn't it?

---

It would if I could find it. No details are provided in the marriage record.

---

What about records for children? Do they maybe state the mother?

---

Only the mother’s given name is provided in baptism records at this time; the full maiden name is not given until more than 30 years later (major changes in the church records were made by decree of the Emperor in 1784).

---

How was 3rd degree consanguinity defined? The definition should help you identify candidates.

---

This is second cousins, so, in theory they would share great-grandparents. The great grandparents could have married in the late 1600s (say 1680-90, but could be earlier), thus born 20-30 years prior. While records of this time and earlier do exist, completing family trees this early does not always meet with success.

I have also noted that “3rd degree consanguinity” can be imprecise. One of the marriage partners may be a great-grandchild of the common ancestor, and the other a grandchild.

Answer 1

Death Certificates of children sometimes says both parents name and the moms maiden name.

Comments

The Catholic death records of this period tend to be pretty cryptic:

• For adult men, no parents or spouse named
• For adult women, if married sometimes the husband’s name; if unmarried, sometimes the father’s name, no mother’s name
• For children, only the father’s name

For all, ages are commonly given, frequently, years, months, and days, especially for younger people. For newborns that died, sometimes the ages are given in hours. Stillborn children do not appear in the death records, only those that lived long enough to be baptized.

Answer 2

Hello George,
just a little note or idea from me.

I have also had this situation many times and some can solve, others not.

The fact that the person who made the entry did not know the bride's last name and the father's name actually testifies that she was not from the parish. Even if there was a more distant type of relationship here, he did not know the names.

So there is a high probability that she came from a neighboring parish. Since it was common in Germany (also Austria) that marriages took place in the village of the bride, but this did not happen (assuming that she came from another parish), it could be possible that her father was already deceased. In these cases, however, a parish register entry was often made in the bride's parish, indicating where the marriage actually took place. Engagement entries, proclamations, etc. were also common in some cases, and they were then noted in both church books (some in engagement books, some between marriage entries). These are usually found 2-6 weeks before the wedding.
You might have luck if you search the surrounding parishes.
Good luck