Request for help, regarding my Great-grandparent's marriage

Hope this is of help:

One of the first places to contact or visit in Virginia is the State

Library and Archives in Richmond. The archives is located on the

west wing of the main floor of the building. The collection of

records includes federal records pertaining to Virginia; state

records of birth from 1853-1896, colonial, death from 1853-1896,

divorce, land, marriage from 1853-1935, military and tax records.

They also have county records mostly up to 1865 including court,

deeds, marriage and probate. Their other records include bible,

biography, cemetery, church, DAR, emigration, immigration, maps,

manuscripts and mortuary records.

The State Library is located in the east wing of the main floor of

the building. It has an excellent collection of materials on Virginia

history.”

==O==

Following English custom, before 1837, most colonial Virgin-ia

marriages took place in the parish church, following the publication

of banns [the announcement in church on three successive Sundays], or

by license, according to Sherry Irvine, BA, CGRS, FSA. There were

two proper ways to get married, by banns or by license. If the

couple obtained a marriage li-cense from one of the ecclesiastical

offices, banns were not required.

In Virginia few Colonial licenses survive because the license was

given to the groom to present to the officiating minister. The

license contained statements made on oath that both parties to the

union were over the age of 21 [or they supplied the proper

permission] and that there was no known impediment to the marriage.

The bond, originally required, was for a sum of money to be forfeited

if any part of the allegations were false.

==O==

Virginia, in 1705, introduced the term “Mulatto.” The new law

provided that the offspring also of “an Indian should be deemed,

accounted, held and taken to be mulatto.” [Henning, 1823, 252.a]

==O==

A will in Virginia, prior to 1786, did not have to name the wife or

the eldest son of a deceased man. Their inheritance of real estate

was established by law. The widow was to receive 1/3 as her dower,

and the eldest son was to receive the remaining 2/3, unless otherwise

specified by his father’s will. The eldest son also received his

mother’s 1/3 when she died. If the eldest son had died, the eldest

grandson of the whole brood became the heir-at-law, not the second

son. If a man was unmarried at the time of his death, his heir-at-

law was his eldest brother, not his father or his uncle, unless his

will specified otherwise. –Ancestors Update.

==O==