Braxton County Marriage Licenses
1836-1845

From: History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davison Sutton 1919
Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Marji Turner


"The average number is only a fraction over 20 per year, some years there seems to have been a dirth, while other years the spirit of matrimony seems to have been abroad in the land.
Some of the names may be misspelled as it was often with difficulty we were able to make them out as the paper upon which the licenses were written was badly faded, and in no case was the name of the minister given.
A penalty of $150.00 was required in every marriage license and in giving their bonds and certificates of applicants' age and consent of parents and guardians, we find the clerk often spelled the names differently from that given by the parents, and we sometimes had to refer to these certificates to enable us to decipher what had been written in the body of the license.
We find many familiar names of old citizens, and the hand writing of many that could nowhere else be found. The perusal of some of these certificates is very amusing. Some of the parties whose names we have recorded have long since left the country, and their names have become extinct."