In New England town clerks
registered marriages. Churches kept some of the earliest and most
complete records and newspapers printed engagement and marriage
announcements. Marriage information also appears in census schedules,
pension applications, vital records, and city directories; and on
tombstones. The Systematic Series of vital records to 1850 for 206
Massachusetts communities includes lists of births, marriages, and
deaths. The following selections illustrate the variety of marriage
records available in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.
