Find your ancestors in Shropshire marriages

Discover whether any of your ancestors were married in the diocese of Shropshire, England. These records cover almost four centuries of marriages, between 1538 and 1900.

Each record is a transcript which includes a colour image of the original parish register of the marriage. The amount of information included varies, but the Shropshire marriage records usually include the following information about your ancestor:

  • Full names of the bride and groom
  • Ages of the couple
  • Home parishes of the bride and groom
  • Date of marriage
Later records may also include other details. These may not always be transcribed, but you may be able to see them on the scanned image of the original record. You might uncover:
  • Names of the witnesses to the marriage (often family members)
  • Names of the fathers of the bride and groom
  • Occupations of the groom
  • Occupations of the father of both the bride and the groom
  • Previous marital condition, such as 'bachelor', 'spinster' or 'widower'
This record set comprises almost 535,600 marriages from almost 285 Anglican parishes in Shropshire, England. These records date from 1538 to 1900. Marriage records are an essential part of researching your family history. There are records where the parents of the bride and groom are listed, and these are often the key to finding out the names of the generation before. Occasionally, ages of the couple may be listed as "full" rather than as a figure. This was a customary way of noting that they were over the required age of 21. If the bride or groom was under the age of 21, “with consent of parents” is noted in the record. Salop is the old name for the West Midlands county of Shropshire. It was renamed Shropshire by order of the county council in 1980. Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire. These records belong to the Shropshire collection, a unique set of records spanning baptisms, banns, marriages and burials which provides details of the history of Shropshire and its people. Shropshire borders Wales, and there are a number of records from Montgomeryshire in Wales in these records. These records are from the diocese of Shropshire; note that dioceses can cross county borders.