Introduction and Instructions

No marriage licenses exist for Washington County until the year 1880. The source of all marriage records prior to that year is marriage registers. There are two marriage registers, one of several volumes that contains marriages from 1851 to the present. There is also a marriage register that records acknowledgements of Freedmen's marriages from 1866 to 1868 and "a record of colored marriages" from 8 March, 1867 to 6 June 1872. The Freedmen's Register records slave marriages legalized after the Civil War between 1866 and 1868. Some of these marriages occurred 40 years before the Civil War. The record tells how long each couple has cohabited.

In order to provide the best information available from both of these registers and existing licenses, we are transcribing all marriage licenses and ONLY those marriage register entries for which no license exists. The project to transcribe these licenses and marriage register entries will terminate at the year 1920 to avoid living persons.

The sequence of events in this project is to transcribe both marriage registers to the year 1881 first. We will then transcribe all licenses, compare them to the marriage register and then transcribe marriage register entries for which no license was found.

We are also indexing all brides, grooms, mothers and fathers listed in the marriage register and the marriage licenses. Parents were generally not recorded in the marriage register in the earlier years. Information found in parental consent data concerning relationships will also be included and indexed. Witnesses, applicants, the county Register of Deeds, Justices of the Peace and Ministers will not be indexed. The index also shows the type of the surname for females and the source of the surname. Entries for type surname will indicate whether a female's surname appears to be a MAIDEN surname or a MARRIED surname based on age and other information in the marriage license or marriage register. Entries for source will be either LICENSE, REGISTER or IMPLIED. LICENSE means the surname is as written on the license. REGISTER means the surname is as written on the marriage register. IMPLIED means the surname is implied from other data on the license. Examples of this are:
(1) - The new surname the bride acquires by virtue of the marriage. The entry in type surname in this case is MARRIED and the source is IMPLIED. Every bride has an entry of this type, even if she is marrying someone with the same surname.
(2) - Where the bride's surname is different from her father's surname the license is probably for a second or third marriage so the bride's maiden surname can be implied from the father's surname.
(3) - Where a mother's surname is different from the father's surname it may be her maiden surname, so a married surname can be implied. If the father is dead and the mother living, it can also indicate a subsequent marriage.
There are, of course, other circumstances such as bastardy, etc. which can make these assumptions not valid. But since the purpose of the index is solely as a finding aid the resulting errors do no harm. By indexing the way we have, you can find those second and third marriages you didn't know about and locate females whose maiden name is unknown.

You may read through the marriage licenses and register entries by using the table below. Licenses and register entries are arranged in chronological sequence by license date. All pages are linked to the next page and previous page. If you are searching for a specific person or surname use the index. Pick the approriate index in males or females below. This will take you to an alphabetical index of names. Once you find a name of interest, click on it and you will be taken to the license or marriage register entry in which that person appears. To return to the index where you left it use the "back" button on your browser.

The licenses you will view are virtual copies of the actual licenses. The only thing missing is the numbered superscripts to each blank, underlined area on the license where information was to be entered and the legend to the superscripts explaining what information to enter in the blanks. These were omitted to save space. A facsimile of a complete blank license with superscripts and legend may be viewed by clicking here. A few licenses were hand written. These have been transcribed as if a form was used and annotated below the license. Marriage register entries contain all information in the actual register.