Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Use microfilm copies, Wise County (Va.) Reels 5 and 49.

Preferred Citation

Wise County (Va.) Register and General Index to Marriages 1, 1856-1908. Wise County (Va.) Reels 5 and 49, Local government records collection, Wise County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

The original volume came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Wise County.

Microfilm Reel 5, containing a transcribed version of Register of Marriages 1, was generated by the Genealogical Society of Utah while filming in the Wise County Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Microfilm Reel 49, containing the General Index to Marriages 1, was generated by a field operator, from the Virginia State Library's (now Library of Virginia) Microfilm Section, while filming in the Wise County Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Historical Information

Wise County was formed in 1856 from Lee, Scott, and Russell Counties. The county was named for Henry Alexander Wise, governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860.

In 1853, the General Assembly passed a law requiring the systematic statewide recording of vital statistics. The marriage register, still compiled by the county clerk from ministers' returns and other original marriage records, became more standardized and comprehensive.

Order books record all matters brought before the court when it was in session and may contain important information not found anywhere else--sometimes relating to specific marriages.

The original marriage licenses, from which this volume was compiled, were created by the County Court until 1904. After this date, marriages were recorded in the Circuit Court.

Scope and Content

Wise County (Va.) Register of Marriages 1, 1856-1908, records the date and place of marriage, the full names of both parties, the age and condition of both parties before marriage, their places of birth, their race (noted from 1892-1908), their places of residence, the names of their parents, the occupation of the husband, the name of the minister performing the ceremony and any additional remarks (such as the ministers' denomination, the race of the parties married or the process by which the individuals were married.) A consecutive numbering system was used for each entry in a given year. References to African American marriages began in 1869 and continued until 1908. In 1895, permission to grant a marriage between an adult and a minor was recorded in Order Book 16, page 488.

Glued pages found in the beginning of the volume contain marriage information found elsewhere in the volume. A partial internal index is found only in this original volume kept by the county clerk. This index is arranged alphabetically (A-D, A-B and then A-Y) by surname (including both bride and groom) according to the listing in the volume (only through page 32.) This register has not been microfilmed. The transcribed version found in the Circuit Court Clerk's Office is found on Microfilm Reel 5 (minus the internal index and glued pages found only in the original volume.) The General Index to Register of Marriages 1, 1856-1908, is found only on Microfilm Reel 49. This index includes a comprehensive alphabetical arrangement (AA-ZZ) of all surnames found in the register from pages 1-590. Additional listings for surnames (BM, MM, SY, SM, CM and HM) are found on pages 595-601.

Arrangement

Entries are arranged by year.

Related Material

Additional Wise County Marriage Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Additional Wise County Marriage Records can also be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia's site index under "Vital Statistics." Additional records are noted in the collection guide, "Birth and Marriage (Husband-Wife) Indexes," a statewide index compiled from 1853-1935.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Wise County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans--Marriage--Virginia--Wise County.
• African Americans--Virginia--Wise County.
• Christian sects--Virginia--Wise County.
• Clergy--Virginia--Wise County.
• Marriage--Virginia--Wise County.
• Occupations--Virginia--Wise County.

Geographical Names:

• Wise County (Va.)--History.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Indexes (reference sources)--Virginia--Wise County.
• Local government records--Virginia--Wise County.
• Marriage records--Virginia--Wise County.
• Marriage registers--Virginia--Wise County.
• Order books--Virginia--Wise County.

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

• Wise County (Va.) County Court.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

The transcribed version of the volume and the General Index to Marriages 1 are located in the Wise County Circuit Court Clerk's Office.