The
marriage records listed on this website were transcribed about
10 years ago. During the transcription process, 'corrections and
additions' were made without distinguishing the changes from the
original record. Many records presently contain information that
was not part of the original record. As of April, 2010, the
marriage records were being revised to comply with the
information listed below. It is estimated that the records will
come into compliance in about four years.
Data
Integrity: It was the intent of the Madison County
Coordinator to transcribe the marriage records exactly as they
were written in the Marriage Books held by the Madison County
Recorder's office. So, If errors were made in the original
record, those same errors will appear in this transcription.
Anything you see in the postings written in black font is
exactly as it was written in the Madison County Marriage books,
subject to our interpretation of the handwriting.
Subsequent
to the transcription effort, the County Coordinators have added
additional information such as full names where only initials
were given in the original records. Red
Font was used for any data added by the coordinators.
So, if you see red font used in the record of your ancestor, be
aware that that part of the data was not part of the original
records. Data in red font has not been
sourced and could be incorrect. It should be considered a clue
and not a fact.
In
some cases, where surnames were grossly misspelled in the
original records, a complete second entry with the correct
spelling has been added to better enable the researchers to find
their ancestors. Where this was done, the corrected surname has
been added in Red Font enclosed
in Brackets.
Date
Highlighted in Green: Sometimes, Madison County
residents went across county lines to get married. Those
marriages would not be found in the Madison County Marriage
Books but might appear in the local newspapers. In those cases,
we have added the information found in the newspaper account (or
from whatever source) and highlighted the date in
green.
Linked
Marriage Date: If you come across a marriage date that
has a web link associated with it, clicking on it will take you
to the newspaper account of the wedding. Most were a simple one
or two sentence paragraph but a few were much more elaborate.
Multiple
Marriages: If a person was married more than once, the
number of the marriage will be presented in parentheses.
Maiden
Name in Multiple Marriages: If a person was married
more than once, the name usually entered in the marriage record
was the last married surname. The maiden name was given in a
separate line in the Marriage Book. On this website, multiple
marriages for brides are entered in two ways, both as the maiden
name and as the previous married name. Here is an example:
Lathrop, Charity E. |
26 Dec 1865 |
Raymond, Edward W. |
Lathrop, Charity E.
(2) |
25 Aug 1887 |
Kellogg, William (2) |
Raymond, Charity E.
(nee Lathrop) (2) |
25 Aug 1887 |
Kellogg, William (2) |
Names
in Quotes: A name inside quote marks is a nickname and
is accompanied by the actual name.
|