Houston County Researchers: A while back, I posted an article about the Colored Marriage Records of Houston Co., GA. I stated that there were also several *white* marriages listed in these volumes. The reason I know this to be a fact, is that I am familiar with the early (pre-1900) families of Houston Co., GA. Of course, some of the former slaves were named after their owners, but it is not likely that *both* the bride and groom would be named after their white (married) former owners. I was at the Houston Co., GA courthouse in Perry, the other day, and I met 2 ladies who were searching for a few Houston Co., GA marriage records. They said that they had been searching for them for over 20 years, but just *could not* seem to find them. They had tried going thru the original Marriage Licenses, to no avail. I suggested that they look thru the *Colored* Marriage Records. You should have seen the look on their faces when I suggested that! But, their somewhat skeptical looks turned into joy when they found BOTH of the Marriage Licenses that they were pursuing for 2 decades. They immediately had the Record Books on the photocopy machine. Very carefully, though. The Colored Marriage Record Books of Houston Co., GA have *not* been microfilmed. In light of this, over the past 2 years, I have abstracted 8,000 of the marriages up to 1896. Now, as time allows, I feel that I "should / would / could" dig thru each of those 8,000 Marriage Records and compare the name of the bride and groom to other documented resources, and try to see which ones are *white* and which are *colored*. The Colored Marriage Record Books of Houston Co., GA are in poor condition. They are also not fully indexed, nor in proper chronological order. The reason that the 2 ladies were able to find the 2 marriages in the Colored Marriage Record Books so easily, is because I had previously spent 200+ hours with those records. Becoming familiar with these records, I knew which books to have them review. There may be various reasons why these white marriages have wound up in the Colored Marriage Record Books. I believe that the original Marriage Licenses *somehow* got mixed together, and that they were just pasted in the Record Books without further ado. The mere fact that there may be hundreds, possibly even thousands of white marriages mixed in these Colored Marriage Record Books, opens up these *lost* marriage records to those who have never been able to document a marriage that they just *knew* had to have been in Houston Co., GA. As I said, I have already abstracted 8,000 of these marriages, and have been approved for a grant from the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation to have them published. It may be a year or so before the books are actually in the libraries. Until then, if any of you contact me in pursuit of locating a particular Marriage Record of your ancestors, I have not entered them into my computer yet. They are still hand-written onto a thick stack of notebook paper. It would take me a few hours just to sort thru these abstracts. As I spend more and more time at the Houston County courthouse, I discover more and more things that need abstracting and preserved for future generations. It is difficult for me to prioritize these projects that seem to have evolved into *many* by now. Sometimes I feel that I am just spinning my tires, but one of these days, I hope to finish up with these projects. In the mean time, please bear with me. Take care & happy hunting! _____________________________ William A. Mills Perry, Georgia [email protected] Houston Co., GA Research & Publications: http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/8795 ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.