In 1929, Stratton Nottingham published abstracts of the Northampton County marriage bonds which quickly became the standard source for Northampton County marriages. Nottingham's work, covering the years 1706 to 1854, was based on marriage bonds but omitted most ministers' returns. Since a bond shows an intention to marry while a minister's return shows an actual marriage, Ms. Mihalyka decided to expand on the earlier work by including all pertinent data found on existing ministers' returns, some of which date from as early as 1660. In addition, she has included some data from Bibles and other private records. Thus, the present work corrects, expands, and completely supersedes Nottingham's 1929 compilation. Each bond entry given by Nottingham was checked against the original document. This edition includes the entirety of the 1929 edition (with numerous corrections), plus data from the age certification and consent papers present with many of the original bonds (which Nottingham ignored), as well as licenses, ministers' returns, and family Bibles. Each entry contains the following data (wherever known): name and age of bride and groom, date of intention and/or marriage, family relationships, name of the individual who served as security, and witnesses. Over 3,000 entries are included, listing whites, slaves and Free Negroes. The preface comprises an informative history of Virginia's marriage laws, with facsimiles of several original documents. Heritage Books, Inc. is proud to offer this third edition of Ms. Mihalyka's valuable work with revisions and additions to the 1995 edition.
Jean M. Mihalyka
(1991, 1995, 2000), 2008, 5½x8½, paper, index, 192 pp.
ISBN: 9780788415067
101-M1506
