I called the Catawba Clerk of Deeds yesterday to check how much it would cost to get copies of birth, death, marriage certificates. The answer was kind of odd I thought. The clerk told me she just didn't have time to research old records and the NC Archives had them so ask them. She then check a marriage record for me from 1875 (never had anyone do that on the phone for me) and said she had a "card" on the marriage for Mar 2, 1875 for the bond and Mar 4, 1875 for the actual marriage. She said there was no record of marriage license issued. The couple must have just come in and given the marriage information and it was written on a card for notification purposes. Does this make any sense to anyone? The names of the justice of the peace and the witnesses were listed on the card, but she says there is no signed document at all? Also, does anyone know if any of the justices of the peace in Catawba kept records and are they held in any repository? Also (sorry), does anyone know if the actual court minutes preceding the issuance of a Bastardy Bond are recorded (Catawba again) and where they would be found?\ Thanks to anyone who can answer these. I'm in Florida and dealing w/ the clerk just totally baffled me, but I think that may have been her plan Bambi Woods [email protected]