Catherine asked, >After reading through the look ups of the various names being done by Billy >Markland, I have to question the lack of some of the names. >This is just a thought, it was the habit of the Moravians to sort of control >or arrange marriages to the advantage of the community as a whole. The >marriage was first approved by the Church. Often it was sugguested by the >church leaders that certain people marry. Would this elimate the posting >of bonds, since the arrangement was basicly controlled by the church? Would >not these unions be thus only recorded by the church? Marriages that took place in any church, Moravian or otherwise, may not appear in these compilations of marriage bonds, since marriage was legal in NC either by posting a bond or by posting banns in church. Also, Billy is posting records only for Rowan and Surry Counties. The Wachovia settlement was mostly in what became Stokes County in 1789 and then Forsyth in 1849, so marriages in that area wouldn't be in these two books anyway. Elizabeth Harris state coordinator, NCGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/