Hello,
My niece is engaged to be married next year, and she actually
went through a similar process in the USA. Both she and the groom
brought people in to vouch that neither had been married before, that
they were not related, etc., I never experienced this when my husband
and I came before the priest to ask to be married, neither did my
sisters, nor my nephew & his wife. I'm guessing that it's because our
families knew the priest, and we were getting married in our own parish.
He knew that we hadn't been married before, were'nt related, etc., In
my situation, the priest actually knew both of our families. He works
with the handicapped, and since we both have siblings, he knew our
families. We were all married in the US too.
My niece is marrying a non-Catholic, doesn't know the priest and
is marrying in a different parish in the US. It seems this is still a
practice. Interesting....
Irma Gomez Gtz
Northern Calif.

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 23:48:49 -0800
From: "Raymond Jauregui"
Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Difference
To: research@nuestrosranchos.org
Message-ID: <410-22007231474849633@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Informacion Matrimonial: When a couple decided to marry, they were
required to petition the church for permision to marry. The bride (La
Pretensa) and groom (El Pretenso) along with their respective character
witnesses (Testigos) would appear before the Priest and make sworn
statements about who they were, their parents, where they were from,
where they originated, etc. The witnesses would vouch for the
individuals, who were the parents, how long they had known the couple,
etc. Reasons for the scrutiny were several which included; to prevent
close family intermarriages, first cousins etc., to provide for
protection of properties, land grants, and that the marriage was of
mutual consent between families. This could precede the marriage by
several weeks or months. Once the Church was satisfied as to the proper
status of the couple permission was granted and the wedding announcement
(Bands of Marriage) were made and the wedding took place.

Regular Matrimonio films are the records of the actual weddings, listing
the couple, their parents and all the rest of the information required
at the time.

Hope I answered your question.......

Alice:

Do you mind uploading a scan of the marriage document that you have from
Panuco or at least transcribing it? Also, taking a lead from Daniel, if
the registro de matrimonio does not list parents or place names, perhaps
the informacion matrimonial does. Have you yet looked at this film?

Mexico, Zacatecas, Panuco Informaci?n matrimonial 1881-1882 VAULT INTL
Film 1092826

What about this film?
Mexico, Zacatecas, Panuco, Matrimonios 1878-1889 FHL INTL Film 1082210

Informaci?n matrimonial 1801 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222237 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1802-1803 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222238 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1804-1805 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222239 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1806-1807 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222240 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1808-1809 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222241 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1810-1811 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222242 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1812 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222243 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1813-1814 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222244 ]
Informaci?n matrimonial 1815 - VAULT INTL Film [ 222245 ]*