This book contains the 6,225 marriages listed in the Accomack County, Virginia Marriage Register No. 3, labeled 1854-1896. Marriage dates range from 8 July 1852 to 29 December 1895 with certificate return dates from 30 January 1854 to 31 December 1895. The license and return dates sometimes vary quite a bit. For example, a marriage certificate dated 8 July 1852 was returned on 26 April 1854, almost two years after the marriage. This book also contains 322 marriage licenses in the Accomack County Clerk's Office dated from 1 January 1854 to 21 January 1875 that were not included in Marriage Register No. 3. The reason for this is that all marriages were not consistently reported to the County Clerk by local ministers until after the Civil War. There may have been a few that were not reported even after that time. The existence of a marriage license, however, does not assure that the marriage actually took place. There were free African Americans in Accomack County from the time of the earliest records (1632) and they came to be called "free-negro" in marriage records. Slavery was prohibited in Federally-occupied Virginia by the new constitution of April 1864, at which time all Accomack County African Americans became free. Helpful lists in this book include female nicknames, variations in surnames, ministers, clerks of court and abbreviations. The entries are arranged alphabetically, and there is an everyname index of brides at the end of the book.
Barry W. Miles and Moody K. Miles, III
(1997), 2006, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 422 pp.
ISBN: 9780788406805
101-M0680
