Dear Dennis, Thank you so much for your advice and searching. I was also unable to find Charles in the 1850 census, but was able to find the family in later censuses. I never checked the 1840 census for Mary A. & mother---thank you for giving me that information. I had hoped to find an original marriage record to obtain more information on this couple. Mary A. died June 12, 1905. This date was obtained from her obituary in the Trenton Times. She was living in Bristol, PA at the time of her death, but the Bucks County Courthouse was unable to find a death record for her. I also do not know the date of death for Charles- he apparently died bet 1880-1900 as Mary A. is a widow in the 1900 census. Hope to someday come up with more information. Thank you so much for your help. Jean dennis gries <[email protected]> wrote: In response to the following message: "I am interested in finding a marriage record for my 2nd-gr-grandparents, Charles Henry Buck & Mary A. MacClain. They were married in the early 1850's, both living in Bucks County. Is there of index of marriages for this time period that can be checked and can a copy of the record, if found, be obtained? I am hoping a marriage record might give parent information so I can continue research on their lines. Any help would be appreciated. Jean Adams" One response was the CourtHouse. This will not be effective, as marriage licenses started 1 Oct 1885, and the query time predates the licensing. Other was church records. This is valid. What also could be considered, and this volume is known to be at the Bucks Co Hist Soc Spruance Library, is an index to marriages that were publicized in the newspaper - I believe the Doylestown Intelligencer. This may give the date and place, but tends not to have parental info. I might assume that you already tried to beat the census records to death, for what they can reveal, but perhaps not. Here's what I found. 1850: Tried both names. Found Mary Ann McClain 21 in New Hope Bor with Perthena? 66; Catharine 30. All born NJ. 1860: Could get Charles to work. Tried Mary Buck == hit for Henry Buck 30; Mary A 31 New Hope Bor - both born PA (normal errors) and 2 children. 1870: Now we have Charles H. Buck 44; Mary Ann 41 - he born DE, she NJ plus 5 children. Backtracked: 1840: Parthena McClain in New Hope Bor -- 1 F 10-14; 1 F 20-29; I F 40-49. So, we can conclude that her mom is named Parthena. 1830: Nothing conclusive 1850: Couldn't find anything conclusive for a Charles or Henry in PA, NJ or DE 1880: Back to Henry again, with Mary, a bunch of kids and a grandkid and a mother Ann - 80. So, we can conclude that his mom is named Ann. Suggest that your next steps include finding the deaths of the moms, and seeing if dads are buried with. Good luck Dennis ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message