The Freewill Baptist denomination began in New Durham, New Hampshire in 1780 and spread with the expanding population throughout the states of the Northeast and Midwest, as well as into Canada. It is not often that you will find a collection of marriage records, such as those gathered here, that cover such a vast portion of the United States: Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Territory, California, Oregon Territory, as well as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and what was known as Lower Canada, consisting of Canada East (Quebec) and Canada West (Ontario). The majority of entries, however, come from New England, New York, and Lower Canada. As an example, in Maine many marriages were not officially recorded until the 1830s; it was not required by law until 1892. The state of New Hampshire has even fewer sources for marriage records than Maine (i.e., Maine has county commissioner marriage records, which apparently New Hampshire does not). The entries in this book were abstracted from the Morning Star, published in Limerick, Maine, from 1826-1833 and Dover, New Hampshire, from 1833-1851; the Maine Freewill Baptist Repository of Limerick, Maine, 1843-1851; and the Religious Informer, published in Andover, New Hampshire, and Enfield, New Hampshire, from 1819 and 1825. Entries are listed alphabetically in the form of two indexes; one for grooms and one for brides. A typical entry includes the name of bride and groom, place of residence, date of marriage, place of marriage, name of the elder or other official who performed the ceremony, and a citation that identifies the publication and issue date. Thus, researchers with access to the papers in the original or microfilm form may use this volume as an index and refer to the newspapers for additional data. An alphabetical list of elders/ministers is also provided, naming the dates and towns in which they served.
