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Powhatan County (Va.) Marriage License Register and Marriage Certificates, 1850-1872, is divided into two separate and distinct volumes. Powhatan County (Va.) Marriage License Register and Marriage Certificates, 1850-1872, is divided into two separate and distinct volumes. One side contains a register of marriage licenses from 1850 to 1872. This register records all marriage licenses issued by the county court clerk during the mid-nineteenth century. The information kept by the clerk contains the day, month and year when the license was issued, the full name of the intended groom and the full name of the intended bride. The clerk would then note the intended groom's race (only if he was a free person of color), the bride's condition (daughter of or widow of) and the race of the intended bride (only if she was a free person of color.) Licenses issued both to Free African Americans and African Americans are noted throughout the volume. Only the first thirty pages of the volume are numbered. There is an internal index (A-W) found in the front of the volume . Entries are arranged by the first letter of either the bride or groom's surname as the name appears according to the page number of the volume. Therefore, surnames found in the unnumbered pages of the volume are not found in the internal index.

Marriage Register, 1777-1853, is essentially divided into two sections. The first section covering pages 1-163, 1777-1853, records the date of the marriage bond, the names of both parties, the names of the parents or guardians present and the names of the security or witnesses in attendance. Spanning the period 1802-1853 (pages 48-162), there are twenty-free entries for marriages between "free persons of color."

Powhatan County (Va.) Ministers' Returns Register, 1820-1850, was a volume used by the county clerk in the mid-nineteenth century to record the returns made by individual ministers of marriages performed within the county. The majority of returns were in the form of lists which record the date of the marriage and names of both parties. In the process of preparing and sending the returns, the name of the minister and the minister's denomination were often included.