From New York Genealogical Research by George Schweitzer, 1988 Marriage Records During the Dutch period of New Amsterdam (1609-64), the recording of marriages was left to the state church, the Dutch Reformed Church. When the English took over in 1664, the official church became the Anglican Church or the Church of England. The accepted procedure for marriage involved the posting of banns (announcements) at the church on three Sundays prior to the wedding. For those who chose not to do this, the procurement of a marriage license and/or posting of a marriage bond with the civil authorities was required, although there was apparently much laxity in enforcement, especially on the frontier. In some counties which had been settled early by New Englanders, the town minutes often contained marriage records, as was the New England custom, but his practice gradually declined. Following the Revolutionary War and the demise of a state church, very few marriage records were kept by governmental authorities. Many of the fragmentary surviving marriage records before 1784 have been listed and/or abstracted in the following volumes: --K. Scott, MARRIAGE BONDS OF COLONIAL NY, 1753-84, Trumbull Publishing Co., New York, NY. 4000 items. --NAMES OF PERSONS FOR WHOM MARRIAGE LICENSES WERE ISSUED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE PROVINCE OF NY PREVIOUS TO 1784, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1860 (1968). 25,000 names. --MARRIAGES FROM 1639-1801 IN THE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, NEW AMSTERDAM/NEW YORK CITY, NY Genealogical and Biographical Society, New York, NY, 1940 -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton 2002