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Marriages Volume 2 (November 1859-1868) records the names of the bride & groom, date of marriage, and the name of the presiding official.
Before this publication was compiled, the only index to these marriages was in the Tazewell County Clerk’s office. Marriages were only indexed by groom—according to just the first letter of the surname (not even alphabetical order!).
The marriages are listed by the grooms’ alphabetical surname.
A second index lists the brides in alphabetical surname order. After locating a bride’s name, the researcher turns to the groom’s name in the earlier section to find the corresponding date of marriage and the name of the official.
A third index lists the presiding officials in alphabetical surname order. Information about the official such as county location of the official and the religious affiliation of the ministers was gathered from the marriage records and other sources.
In most cases, only one spelling of an official’s name was used for the index even though there were many different spellings used in the original records.
Researchers should keep in mind that all indexes are somewhat limited in accuracy because of the varied interpretations of the hand-written squiggles and scrawls of the original recorder of the information—some of which were done almost two hundred years ago. However, that does not make this transcription any less useful or valuable.
We are extremely grateful to the Tazewell County Clerk Duane Gray’s office for permission to microfilm these early marriage records.
