Finding FindMyPast Devon Marriage image indexed by FamilySearch?

Question

My 6th great grandparents Robert Osment and his wife Elizabeth baptized five children at Plymouth Charles the Martyr, Devon, England: Phillis (1730), John (1738), Robert (1742), Sarah (1743/44) and Rebecca (1745).

I have not been able to find their marriage in searches at Ancestry.com, FindMyPast or FreeREG. However, at FamilySearch I have found this candidate:

"England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KC9Y-W3F : 27 November 2014), Robert Osment and Elizabeth Simons, 1729, Marriage; from "Church of England parish registers 1538-1911," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing Devon, archive reference , images provided by FamilySearch International.

It says that:

This image is available:

• When using the site at a family history center.

• To signed-in members of supporting organizations.

I do not seem to have the FamilySearch credentials to get at the image online. However, I have a UK Membership of FindMyPast which is where the image appears to also be available (from above).

I have not been able to find the image on FindMyPast so does anyone else know how to navigate to it there?

Answer 1

The marriage occurred at Plymouth Charles the Martyr, as it can be found in the index made by the late Don Curkeet: Charles the Martyr Marriages 1644-1758.

OSMENT, Robert, 1720-1729, SIMONS, Elizabeth, 468

I know they don't show up in a search on FindMyPast, but my next step would be to browse the registers for Plymouth Charles the Martyr. I would search the Devon Marriages to find an entry as near in date to 1729 for that parish, and see if I could go back or forward to the correct page. Also take a look at the 1729 pages for this parish in Devon Baptisms and Devon Burials. In the 1720s, most parishes – if they were not too large – had composite registers, meaning baptisms, marriages, and burials appeared in the same register. When the events are separated into three separate indexes, sometimes something goes awry with indexing, so it's worth checking if you can spot the marriage amid the baptisms or burials. The FamilySearch catalogue suggests it is a composite register from 1675-1750 for this parish.

If you can't find it this way, it may be worth contacting FindMyPast to see if they can explain why the entry appears in the FindMyPast's FamilySearch index but not on the FindMyPast site.

Answer 2

I used the Old Search to search for any marriage in 1729 with "Plymouth, Devon, England" in the Where box, then narrowed the search by selecting these filters:

• Country: England
• Subcategory: Marriages and Divorces

Opening the filter for Record Set gave me the following options:

• Devon Banns Registers 1538-1915 (2)
• Devon Marriages (2,826)
• Dorset Marriages (2)
• England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841 (24)
• England Marriages 1538-1973 (2,517)
• England, Boyd's Marriage Indexes, 1538-1850 (1,389)
• England, Phillimore Marriage Registers, 1531-1913 (140)
• Sarum Marriage Licence Bonds (7)

Searching each of these in the A-Z list to read the information about each database, we see the following:

• Devon Banns Registers 1538-1915: 4 results from Charles the Martyr, two with dates of 1751, two with no dates (Images courtesy of South West Heritage Trust and Parochial Church Council)
• Devon Marriages: 81,189 from Plymouth, Charles the Martyr -- zero from 1729 (transcriptions from Devon FHS)
• Dorset Marriages: no parish named Charles the Martyr
• England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841: filtering for Devon and 1729 -- four results (a Quaker meeting isn't likely to be named Charles the Martyr but I looked to see what the Devon coverage was anyway)
• England Marriages 1538-1973: selecting Devon and marriage places Charles, Charles Plymouth, Charles Plymouth Parish, and King Charles the Martyr (but not Charlesworth) -- 0 results in 1729; for Devon with no other place selected, 2,517 results. Probably from FamilySearch but not explicitly stated in the "Discover More" section. Useful links refers you to Family History Library Catalogue
• England, Boyd's Marriage Indexes, 1538-1850: for Devon, 1,385 results; searching for Plymouth, I don't see any variants for Charles the Martyr (no Discover More section)
• England, Phillimore Marriage Registers, 1531-1913: for Plymouth, like Boyd's, I only see St Andrews (241 Volumes digitized by FMP; 2 vols for Devon)
• Sarum Marriage Licence Bonds: 1,374 results for 1729 (but apparently no results for Devon)

This was written before I saw Harry's commentary on composite registers.

I tried looking for a FamilySearch Partner Page comparable to the PartnerPage for TNA. The link to FamilySearch in the Partner Page list on the left simply takes you back to FamilySearch.org's main page.

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Other searches:

• New FreeREG: 0 results for Surname OSMENT (exact match) marriage in Devon Plymouth; 0 results for OSMENT with Soundex marriage in Devon
• Old FreeREG: no coverage in coverage table

Other resources for finding records from this parish:

• Plymouth Charles the Martyr at GENUKI.org
• http://maps.familysearch.org/ Plymouth Charles, Devon (variant: Plymouth Charles the Martyr) will show surrounding parishes and jurisdictions
• Devon, England Parish Register results at UKBMD
• Batches for Devon in the IGI from Archer Software
• Batches for Devon (N-Z) in the IGI from Hugh Wallis' old site
• Wikipedia: Charles Church, Plymouth

Answer 3

I eventually found the image of this marriage on page 206 of 285 in the Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Parish Registers at FindMyPast ( https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=gbprs%2fply%2f004634454%2f00206).

That showed that Robert Osment and Elizabeth Simons married on 3 Jan 1729/30 at Plymouth Charles the Martyr, Devon, England.