Issue 18.14
My youngest daughter, Jocelyn, is getting married this week so since I had marriage on the brain I thought I would write about the valuable source for genealogists, marriage records. Churches and governments have been keeping marriage records for centuries, usually before they documented other life events. Whether a civil or church authority performed the ceremony, local laws usually required that the marriage be recorded in civil records, much like today. Marriage has always been a very public covenant, recorded in a variety of ways.
Marriage records are usually stored with the county clerk of the county where the bride resides, or sometimes just the town, but some early ones may be housed in the state’s archives. More recent ones may be found in the state’s Division of Vital Records. You may find records that show a couple’s intent to marry in addition to the records of the actual marriage.
Often you will find three consecutive weeks of the marriage, showing the couple’s intent to marry. These were called marriage banns, the public announcement of an intended marriage. They didn’t have Facebook, so they had to get the word out. Banns and intentions were made a few weeks before a couple planned to marry. The couple may have been required to announce their intentions in order to give other community members the opportunity to raise any objections to the marriage. This was common in the southern and New England states through the mid-1800’s. Traditionally the announcement of an impending wedding would be announced in the church for three weeks prior to the event.
Marriage bonds are written guarantees of promises of payment made by the groom (Taylor?) or another person (often a relative of the bride) to ensure that a forthcoming marriage would be legal. These documents were frequently used in the southern and mid-Atlantic states up to the mid-1800’s.
Applications and licenses are the most common types of marriage records. A bride and groom obtained a license to be married by applying to the proper authorities, usually a town or county clerk. These records have the most genealogical value, including the couple’s names, ages and residence. The great records to find also include race, birth dates, occupations and the names of the parents!
For more information, contact Shanna Jones next week at shannasjones@msn.com