Collections : [Library of Virginia]

Marriage Records, 1786-1853, are comprised of two major record categories--marriage registers and marriage bonds--found in four volumes (Parts 1-4.) The first volume (Part 1) covering pages 1-165, 1786-1853, is divided into three separate sections with marriage registers and marriage bonds. Pages 1-39, 1795-1844, record 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. Pages 41-53, 1852-1853, record the same information as found in the first forty pages but also includes the name of the minister who performed the marriage ceremony. Pages 53-54 record the same information found in the first forty pages and note additonal register entries for 1819. Pages 55- 58, 1797- 1851, record the date of the marriage, the names of both parties, the minister's name and the religious denomination of the minister. Another section of this volume, covering pages 59-107, is an alphabetized (A-Y) and chronological (by month and year) register of all parties married and by whom they were married from 1786-1853. The last section of this volume, covering pages 108-165, records marriage bonds from 1821-1824.

Caroline County (Va.) Marriage Register, 1852-1857, includes an alphabetical and chronological listing of marriage licenses and consents issued in Caroline County. Included in these listings are the names of both parties and the date when the marriage license was issued. Individual consents are glued or paper clipped in the proper alphabetical and chronological order. An additional entry for the surname "C" is found on the last page of the volume. Intended marriages between "free negroes or free persons of color" ar noted--such as between Robert Nelson Freeman and Betsy Ann Studdy (with consent given for Miss Studdy) in March 1867.