So what your saying is you did not have to be a quaker to be married by bann , I have some i can not locate and may never, I dont know where or how they were married it would have been around surry county NC about 1844 it was a Samuel Brooks who married Nancy Chappel then there is a Willaim Brooks who married Susanah ? in Surry Nc about 1837 my other dead end is a Moses Brooks who married elizabeth ? either in Surry Or yadkin around 1865 , these have been my brick walls for a long time caint find a thing on these marriges Belle Cindy Goad wrote: > > I can only answer as to the early NC laws ,as to marriage bonds. In 1741 The NC General Assembly > passed a law requiring that marriages either be by license or banns. It was not until 1778 NC > recognized Quaker marriages many of the Quaker banns only exist in Quaker records. Many people > chose banns because there was no bond to be posted and they did not have to travel to courthouse > to secure license. It has been estimated that about 70, 000 NC marriages are lost as few church > records exist today. > > Hindshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy states:When both parties to a marriage > engagement were members in good standing, there was usually no reason why they might not apply to > the meeting, and receive permission to marry under its authority, but here were some exceptions. > Marriage between first cousins or others of close relationship was forbidden. Some couples > chose to marry out of meeting because it was quicker and without the formality which was > necessary in the Quaker meeting. > > Hope this helps > Cindy in NC > Welcome to my Genealogy web sites Evelyn Belle Brooks Long icq#15017803 mailto:[email protected] http://www.rootsweb.com/~txwilbar/index.html http://members.tripod.com/Rebecca_long/index.html http://www.my-ged.com/brooks http://www.my-ged.com/long If you love Quilting you might try our Cyber Bee site at rootsweb. http://www.crafts.rootsweb.com/~quilting/