It depends on the time / era
For Australian convicts a lot of the time they were not allowed to formally marry but they lived as if they were married. Also there are a lot of early marriage records that are lost so perhaps they did marry but the record is lost. Sometimes you will see in the early census they are described as the wife of ...
For these I usually leave the relationship type as married and put in the location “common law relationship”
In Hannah’s case in the
* 1822 census she is described as the wife of Wm Turner
* 1826 court case she is described as cohabitating with William Turner
Common law marriage would be the correct term in this case.
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