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Culpeper County (Va.) Marriage Register (Colored), 1866. Culpeper County (Va.) Reel 55, Local government records collection, Culpeper County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.
This item was microfilmed by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division.
Culpeper was formed from Orange County in 1749.
The Virginia legislature passed an act on 27 February 1866 to legalize the marriages of former slaves and provided for the legitimization of children of couples no longer cohabiting as long as the father recognized the children to be his. See Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1866-1867, Chapter 18, An act to amend and re-enact the 14th section of chapter 108 of the Code of Virginia for 1860, in regard to registers of marriage; and to legalize the marriages of colored persons now cohabiting as husband and wife.
The federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands directed the Assistant Superintendents of the states to order the county clerks to make a registry of such children. See Circular No. 11, dated 19 March 1866, in Orders, Circulars, Circular Letters, and Letters of Instruction, vol. 2 (1866). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865-1869. Miscellaneous reel 3880, Library of Virginia. National Archives microfilm M1048 (reel 41), Record Group 105.
Culpeper County (Va.) Marriage Register (Colored), 1866, is a volume that contains the same kinds of information as that found in a cohabitation register and a register of children of parents who had ceased to cohabit. The volume is divided into three slightly different sections with an index at the beginning that gives the page and line number for each indexed individual. It is also commonly called the Culpeper County (Va.) Cohabitation Register.
pp. 1-14 lists the line number, date and place of marriage, full name of parties married, ages, place of birth, residence, name of parents, occupation of husband, and married by. All couples listed were noted to be "Married by the Law of 1866."
pp. 15-19 lists the line number, name of child, age, place of birth, residence, last owner, last owner's residence, residence of father, father's age, father's last owner, name of mother, mother's age, mother's residence if alive or noted if dead, mother's last owner with residence, and signature of father.
pp. 20-21 lists the line number, name of husband and his age, place of birth, residence, occupation, last owner, last owner's residence; name of wife and her age, place of birth, residence, last owner, last owner's residence; names of children with the age of each, and the date of commencement of cohabitation.
Additional Culpeper County Marriage Records and Vital Statistics can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records On Microfilm" found on the Library of Virginia web site.
Culpeper County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Culpeper County Court Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localities Database found at the Library of Virginia web site.