Marriage Collection

Cut from the late 1800s

Marriage Records

Jefferson, Lewis, and St Lawrence Counties of Northern New York

The Marriage Collection is predominately derived from marriage notices reported in newspapers and the records of ministers and churches. Unlike wedding announcements of today, historical announcements typically contained a minimal amount of information. Generally they contained the names and ages of the bride and groom, the minister, the date and general location of the ceremony, and the general home residence of the bride and groom (i.e. town, village, etc.). Rarely did they mention the parents of either the bride or groom. Even less frequently were other parties involved in the ceremony reported. Minister and church records roughly provided the same level of information as published in periodicals. In some cases the records are not of individuals living in the Northern New York area; however, they clearly had sufficient ties to the area to warrant a published marriage notice.

Note: Rarely do we have a copy of the original source document; however we can generally provide the location of the source document.

Watertown Freeman 1828
Notice - Watertown Freeman Dec. 3, 1828
A divorce from 1828?

Bride and Groom Search
Bride
Surname	First Name

Groom
Surname	First Name

Hints and Tips

Search will work with as few as one letter or a maximum of 30 for either surname or first name of either party.

Start with full names and work backwards. For example: initially search for Timmerman. If you don't see the individual you're searching for, search again with just the first 3 letters of the surname.

Search for variations in spellings, such as Shell, Schell, or Schall. Remember that humans were involved in the whole process. We make mistakes, newspapers misspell names, and clerks make mistakes.

Try only the first letter of the First Name. Occaisionally that is all that's in the original source material.