Liberty County

Marriages

The main resource for marriage information in Liberty County is the MARRIAGE INDEX (PDF format). If you don't find the information you're looking for you should search the surrounding counties. Information on other resorces and how to order marriage certificates can be found towards the bottom of this page. You may also post your request for help at the Liberty County Message Board.

African-American Marriage Records

Most slave traders and many slave owners considered a slave family to consist of a mother and her children. Slave marriages were not legal institutions and therefore were somewhat more permeable than other marriages. If a husband mistreated his wife the slave woman’s options were limited to stopping her association with him. Though many slave marriages were formed out of convenience and the need for mutual support, or out of the owner’s demands, the concept and possibility of romantic love between slaves should not be discounted.

Some owners ignored the personal preferences of their slaves and placed men and women together hoping for an increase in their slave populations through natural means. Marriages were frequently dissolved when owners sold either the male or female to another owner, often through slave traders who transported the unlucky partner off to a distant location. Some families were divided when one partner escaped to the free states and left their spouses and children behind. The severe dislocations families and prolonged absences suffered during the war years, and the difficult economic and social readjustments in the postwar years led to further dissolution of marital ties between slaves and freedmen.

Never assume there is no record of a pre-emancipation slave marriage. Always look for records of the plantation in such places as historical societies, libraries (state and local) and also check out the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). You'll find copies of the NUCMC in larger libraries.

Two months after the end of the Civil War the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by Congress. It is commonly referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau. This newly formed bureau was under the jurisdiction of the secretary of war and officials were commissioned in the eleven Confederate states and Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and Kentucky. The bureau was interested in seeing that freedmen were legally married. In May of 1865 it was ordered that "in places where the local statues make no provisions for the marriage of persons of color, the Assistant Commissioners are authorized to designate officers who shall keep a record of marriages, which may be solemnized by any ordained minister of the gospel."

There was no uniformity to any of the record keeping within the states. Researchers should look first in county and state archived records for cohabitation records. These can be found normally within marriage records and if not found, ask if they are located in another jurisdiction.

Marriage records of the Freedmen's Bureau have been microfilmed by the National Archives, M1875, RG105; Marriage Records of the Office of the Commissioner, Washington Headquarters of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861-1869, United States Congress and National Archives and Records Administration, 2002. Field office records are available on microfilm for Alabama, Arkansas, New Orleans, Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia. Assistant commissioner records for Mississippi (includes some marriage registers) are also on microfilm M826. Some information and marriage records of the Freedmen's Bureau can be found at The Freedmen's Bureau Online.

 

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