More Information About the Marriage Records Collection

Date Field in Database:

The dates listed in the marriage card files are not necessarily marriage dates. The date given could refer to the date of a marriage bond, the date that an announcement of the marriage was published in a newspaper, or some other date. Researchers must consult the source listed for an entry to determine what the date indicates.

Notes Field in Database:

This field contains additional information listed in the marriage card files, such as an alternative spelling of a bride or groom’s name, the name of a guardian, the county of residence if different from that in which the marriage took place, etc. Clarifying information is also present in the notes field, for example, to explain a particular date or spelling of a name. This information varies widely, with some entries providing no additional information. The notes field is searchable only by using the keyword search function.

Source Field:

The source from which a particular entry in the index was taken is noted in full in the source field. Entries for which no source could be determined are noted as such in the source field. Please consult the original source indicated in these instances.

Free Blacks Listing:

This search displays a list of all the marriages from this database indicated to have taken place between free people of color.

Record-keeping practices prior to emancipation frequently included notations to indicate a record or event concerning a free Black individual whose legal rights and responsibilities differed from those of enslaved people. Due to the difficulty of tracing African Americans prior to 1866, most of whom were enslaved, indexers felt compelled to include this information in their indexes. We have retained this information as part of the historical record and to convey the relevance of the individuals' names to the time in which they were recorded.