Other Means of Finding Marriages
Genealogy Tips by Jeannette Holland Austin
Recognize the 1940 Ford? It is a relic from the “old neighborhood!”
Just about everyone knows how difficult it is to find marriages in South Carolina. The reason with marriage difficulties in any State, however, is because there were few Laws before 1900 requiring recording marriages. Ministers were the ones posting the old marriages at the county seat. In South Carolina, some Colonial marriages are discovered in the South Carolina Gazette. Thus, one must search the old newspapers being published in the desired time period. In Georgia, for example there were major newspapers covering different sections of the State. You might not find what you want in Macon, for example, but your marriage announcement might just as well be published in another local newspaper. When researching old newspapers, prepare to sit down with some patience. The reason is that marriages were scattered on front pages, local social columns, under different headings such as Marriages or Weddings, Social News, and even on advertising pages at the end of the newspaper.
Learn about the old Neighborhood. A local county map or topograpical map is a good bet for locating the old home place as well as local and church graveyards. A thorough search of the graveyards in the “old section” will pinpoint the “old neighborhood.” There people were friends and relatives. It is not uncommon to spot the married name on a tombstone. Also, hopefully, we all write down the names of witnesses on documents. Those names are familiar to the neighborhood. They were friends and neighbors. What I do is record all of the tombstones in the old section because almost always I run into a name on a document that I want to identify.
Another resource is old wills. Say, your ancestors fit in the range of 1790-1835. All wills and estates in that time period should be read. Why? There are goodies in the testaments of the old neighborhood. I once discovered that my ancestor had a wife that I could not find. Turns out, that her father left a LWT in 1788 and named two sisters who had been stolen by the Indians. That gave me her maiden name as well as another generation back! Estate records often have “vouchers” (receipts). If you compare the amounts written into the Annual Returns with the vouchers, that almost always turns up John Smith as the husband of one of the daughters. The marriage records can then locate the marriage of John Smith to that daughter. Also, estate sales and inventories usually turn up the names of close relatives.
In essence, an understanding of the neighborhood in which your ancestor resided helps to fill in the blanks. Other records, such as deeds and tax records are also helpful.
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