Just a quick heads up on the ongoing developments surrounding civil partnerships and marriage law in Scotland!
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 introduced the concept of civil partnerships for same-sex couples into law in Scotland from December 5th 2005. A civil partnership ceremony is secular and must not contain any religious content, or be held at any place that is “used solely or mainly for religious purposes”. A prior notice must be given to a registrar within three months preceding the event, and no later than 15 days before the ceremony is due to happen. The minimum age for both contracting parties is sixteen, and the usual rules of consanguinity, marital status, etc, apply.
A further development in 2014, the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act, further provided for the marriage of same-sex couples, bringing marriage law into line for same-sex couples as for mixed-sex couples.
The upshot of all of this was that until today, same-sex couples could enjoy the option of either a civil partnership or a marriage, whereas mixed-sex couples only had the option to marry, and not to enter into a civil partnership. This has changed, thanks to the Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2020, with it now possible for mixed-sex couples to enter into a civil partnership. The BBC has the story at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57650828.
From a genealogy point of view, it is a useful reminder that for our current generation, and for future generations of genealogists, we may need to consult both the registers of marriage and civil partnerships to locate family developments in the early 21st century and going forwards. Indexes to both of these are available on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk).
In a practical sense, there is not a great deal of difference between a civil marriage and a civil partnership, but the Citizens Advice Scotland website sums it up neatly as follows:
Civil partnership and marriage are almost identical, and civil partners have the same rights and responsibilities as married partners.
There are some very small procedural differences. For example, civil partnerships are registered by signing the civil partnership schedule, with no words required to be spoken, whereas marriages are solemnised by saying a prescribed form of words.
For the genealogist though, there is one other thing to be aware of - marriages can be ended by divorce, but civil partnerships end through dissolution. Again, registers indexes for both are available on ScotlandsPeople.
For background to the recent changes, and the laws underpinning them, visit the Scottish Government's Civil Partnerships page at https://www.gov.scot/policies/family-law/civil-partnership/.
Whether you plan to marry or to go enter into a civil partnership, this humble genealogist simply asks that you leave a paper trail - and above all, be happy, we only have one life!
Chris
Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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