No, they never existed. Each state has it's own laws and it's own records, they chose what they decided to keep track of and what not to track. Liz Harrison In a message dated 6/5/2010 9:17:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Stephie21@charter.net writes: I'm curious.... were the records destroyed some how? In many states I have been able to get the marriage license, from the county... even the original consent signed by the parent. Didn't Pennsylvania counties issue licenses to marry in the 1700s? Thank you, Stephanie in Oregon ----- Original Message ----- From: J SCHWARTZ To: paphilad@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 5:12 PM Subject: Re: [PAPhl] Early Philadelphia records question Philadelphia vital records (Birth, marriage and death) are held at the Philadelphia City Archives and start in 1860. Compliance in filing the proper reports was low in the earlier years, but you should always check. You may occasionally find reference to a marriage/death (not births) in an earlier newspaper, like the (indexed) Public Ledger (available at the FLP and elsewhere), but they are spotty. Records for the 18th century, and early part of the 19th are difficult to dig up, but they are located, as everyone else has mentioned, in church records, and usually don't contain too much information, other than who the parties were, when and where conducted, and sometimes witnesses. I've occasionally found that a particular minister kept his own lists of marriages, (eg Rev David Denny in Chambersburg, Pa, 1801-1844), but it was a very lucky find. jo ----- Original Message ----- > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 15:04:53 EDT > From: Sndtenterprises@aol.com > Subject: Re: [PAPhl] Early Philadelphia records question > To: paphilad@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <52a6e.29e71262.393aa855@aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Philadelphia City Archives has marriage licenses from 1885. > > Sndtenterprises > Genealogical and Historical Research > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 15:14:55 -0400 > From: Eugene Stackhouse <genestackhouse@msn.com> > Subject: Re: [PAPhl] Early Philadelphia records question > To: <paphilad@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <COL103-W455132FFC9AE07C8017332C6D20@phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > I believe that Philadelphia records begin 1885 at the city archives. > > I could find no governmental records for my great-grandparents who were married in Philadelphia before the 1870s. > > Gene Stackhouse in Germantown Heights. > > > ********* Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PAPHILAD ********* ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PAPHILAD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.437 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2920 - Release Date: 06/05/10 18:25:00 ********* Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PAPHILAD ********* ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PAPHILAD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message