I have found a few marriages in Goochland & other counties by reading court order books (estate records) and deed books (deeds of gift). In cases where the Rev. Douglas did not record a marriage or the bride's father did not mention her in his will, this is a time consuming way of trying to indentify the bride & does not always yield results. Worth trying though in most counties with those records available. Bonnie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Grundset" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:24 PM Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Albemarle County Formation > There are extremely few marriage records for Albemarle County prior to > 1780. At some point prior to the Revolution, there was apparently a > courthouse > fire, and some early records were lost. In addition, during the Revolution > when Tarleton headed to Charlottesville in an attempt to capture Thomas > Jefferson, the surviving records in the courthouse were evacuated. There > is a > list that shows what was saved from the British in that evacuation, and > the > list matches almost exactly the surviving court record books for the > period 1745-1781 that we still have today. Marriage records are not in > the list, > so either they were already destroyed earlier or were left behind for the > sake of saving the major record books. I'm working on a small article on > this very topic because one of my ancestors in Albemarle was a deputy > sheriff > during the Tarleton Raid and the list is in a surviving record book that > he kept. > > It is extremely unlikely that many Albemarle marriages would be recorded > in > another county after 1745 unless the couple requested it for some reason > or for some other special reason. Marriages were usually recorded in the > county of residence (we've often heard residence of the bride, but I > wonder > about that some times). Just because Albemarle was formed from Goochland > doesn't mean anything for subsequent record keeping for Albemarle > residents > unless a couple "went home" to one of their families to be married. > > Searching neighboring counties is, of course, always a thing to do, but > marriages would not automatically be recorded in them. I'm afraid there > just > isn't any hope of finding many pre-1780 Albemarle County records. > > Eric Grundset > Burke, Virginia > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html