To discover the answer look to the source of the extracted record. If the date was extracted from a marriage bann, bond, license, declaration of intention, contract, or consent affidavit, chances are it was not the actual date of the marriage. If the date was extracted from a marriage certificate, announcement, ledger, family Bible, or minister return, the chances are good that the date is the actual date of the marriage ceremony.

The following is a list of the types of documents from which a marriage date may have been extracted and a description of each. Learning about the types of documents from which a marriage date can be obtained will help you determine the chances of the date being the actual marriage date.

• 1. Marriage Banns - Banns are church public notices or announcements of a couple's intention to be married in the church. It was required that a marriage bann be posted and announced for three consecutive Sundays in the church to which the couple were members. Banns were also required to be posted in a public place. Some of the earliest Marriage records in the United States, as well as in other countries, will be found in church records in the form of Church Banns. Posting a bann allowed the couple to marry without the requirement of obtaining a license or reporting the marriage to the civil authorities. In the US, Quakers and members of other churches where banns were used were exempt from marriage license laws until well into the 1900s. Banns are still a requirement for marriage in England, France and some other countries. In the U.S. after a Bann had been posted, if anyone objected to the marriage, they had 3 weeks to make it known. The most common reason for requiring the posting of a Bann was to allow for the discovery of a previous marriage that had not been legally terminated.
• 2. Marriage Bonds - In early colonial times, pioneer frontier areas, and prior to the 1900s in the Southern states, bonds were required to be posted before a marriage license could be issued. Because of the scarcity of ministers, couples wanting to be married by license went to the county court clerk and posted a bond with security, usually between 100 and 150 dollars, that there was no lawful reason that the marriage could not be lawfully performed. The bondsman had to be "able and known" and was usually a relative of the groom. The bond was filed in the county where the marriage was to take place. If some cause was discovered which would make the proposed marriage null, the person posting the bond paid the money to the county clerk. No money changed hands at the time the bond was issued. The posting of bonds was more prevalent in the South and was meant to protect the bride in the event that the groom was found to be already married. The marriage often took place within a few days of the posting of the bond and an annotation of the marriage date usually was made to the bond after the ceremony.
• 3. Declarations of Intent - This was the civil announcement of the couple's intention to be married. It was filed with the town or county clerk and then posted in a public place for a certain length of time before the marriage could take place. Used in Colonial times, it was for the purpose of allowing others the opportunity to object to the marriage.
• 4. Consent Affidavits - Some states required a parent or guardian to give permission if an underaged individual wanted to get married. The Consent Affidavit had to be submitted to the town or county clerk before a marriage license could be issued. These affidavits usually contained the name of the person giving permission and their relationship to the individual wanting to be married. These are more often found in the South and in frontier areas where marrying at an early age was encouraged. As a side note: if the mother is the one giving permission, it usually means the father is dead.
• 5. Marriage Contracts - These legal contracts were for the purpose of protecting the assets of those who were planning to be married. For instance, wealthy individuals concerned about the disposition of their assets under the conditions of death or divorce would want to protect their assets with a marriage contract. Or a widow would use a marriage contract to assure that her assets would be fairly distributed to her children from her first marriage should she die, and that the assets wouldn't become solely the property of her new husband. Being legal contracts you will find these documents filed with the courts of the jurisdiction in which the couple were married.
• 6. Marriage Licenses - After the Civil War these became the most common marriage record. The marriage license was a legal means of avoiding the posting of banns and intentions. Marriage licenses had to be issued by the proper authority prior to the wedding ceremony and were returned to the issuer after the wedding was performed. The marriage license does not prove a marriage occurred.
• 7. Marriage Certificates - Some jurisdictions and churches gave marriage certificates to couples after the marriage had been performed. These were usually intended for the couple to frame or display.
• 8. Marriage Ledger - After the marriage ceremony was completed the signed license was returned to the clerk for recording. The date and the name of the official who performed the marriage was recorded in a marriage ledger.
• 9. Newspaper Announcement - Newspaper engagement announcements were published in the newspaper before the marriage took place. In earlier times newspaper marriage announcements were often made and included many details about the couple themselves and the family members participating in the wedding.
• 10. Minister Returns and Marriage Registers - Circuit religious ministers and justices of the peace were required by colonial and state municipalities to "return" a signed and dated statement for each couple they had married. The marriage return stated the exact date of the marriage and frequently was written on the back of the marriage license itself. Often these slips of paper were lost or simply not returned by the minister or justice of the peace. The returns were recorded in the Marriage Register.

Extractions of marriage records may not contain all of the information that is on the actual document. It is wise to send for a photocopy of the marriage document to determine what other information you can get from it.

The MyTrees.com site has added numerous marriage records to their extraction database. To see the listings of the records go to the MyTrees.com homepage and click the region for which you would like to see extracted records. Other possible sources of marriage information included are religious records, widow's pension applications, family Bibles, census records, and city directories.