Ancestry.com has a free database for NC marriage bonds and there are over 400 Cherry names there. Some of these will be first names, but it is worth looking into. NORTH CAROLINA MARRIAGE BONDS, 1741-1868 When planning to marry in eighteenth and nineteenth century North Carolina, the prospective groom took out a bond from the clerk of the court in the county where the bride had her usual residence as surety that there was no legal obstacle to the proposed marriage. On file in the North Carolina State Archives are 170,000 marriage bonds, covering the years 1741-1868. These records were abstracted by the Works Progress Administration. Most of the bonds contain the groom's name, bride's name, date of bond, bondsmen, and names of witnesses. For those with ancestors in early North Carolina, this will be a helpful database. Source Information: Ancestry.com, comp. "North Carolina Marriage Bonds, 1741-1868." [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000. Original data: State of North Carolina. "An Index to Marriage Bonds Filed in the North Carolina State Archives." Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1977. To search this database, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/4802.htm

Gaila and Jim Merrington, Thanks so much for this source! Mary Marchant, doing research for husband's Cherry relations