Indexes transcribed by Cheryl Willis Patten
This spreadsheet information is from index cards filed at the Somerset County Court House in Skowhegan, Somerset, Maine. I entered this information in the fall of 2009 through early 2010. The information was entered from the bride cards and then compared with the groom cards. There are 12 drawers holding 3”X5” index cards. Because the cards are very brittle and are breaking, this spreadsheet allows the information to be accessed without handling the individual cards.
The records cover marriages from about 1828 until about 1890. These are marriages RECORDED in Somerset County – not necessarily performed in Somerset County. Some of these brides and grooms resided in Somerset County, but also many others resided in other areas of Maine or in states, territories or countries other than Maine.
The records are in six drawers labeled WOMEN (A-B, C-F, G-K, L-O, P-S, T-Z) and six drawers labeled MEN (A-C, D-G, H-L, M-P, Q-S, T-Z). Each card includes a space for the name of the bride, her residence, the name of the groom, his residence, the date of the marriage, and the Volume:Page where the information was recorded. There are TWO different types of cards. One set is preprinted “Marriage Records” and one set is preprinted “Co. Com’rs’ Records”. For those records that were on Commissioners’ Record cards I have added a C to the Volume:Page information. Most marriage records do not have an additional letter added. However, for some of the marriage records, especially when the marriage has been entered into both types of record books, I have put M to indicate that the volume and page cited are in the Marriage Record books. For any field that was left blank I have entered “None”.
The cards are divided by alphabetical section cards, but within each section the cards are not all in alphabetical order. There are 5,338 entries. Some marriages appear here multiple times if there were multiple cards. Some marriages were found in the bride cards, but because the name of the groom was not legible to whoever typed the cards, there was no groom card made, and vise versa. If the information on the groom cards did not agree with that on the bride cards a note can be found in the “Comments” section of the spreadsheet.
Some cards have letters, numbers, words or sections of words underlined. For those cards with underlining, I have entered (sic) after the given information. Be creative when considering the spelling of a specific name (Calton, Carlton, Carleton).
The books cited are: Marriage Book 1, Marriage Book 2, Marriage Book 3, County Commissioners’ Record Book 1; County Commissioners’ Record Book 3. The three marriage record books have NOT been located. The two County Commissioners’ record books cited are available at the Somerset County Registry of Deeds office. County Commissioners’ Book 1 is labeled “Highways and Ferries, 1”, and County Commissioners’ Book 3 is labeled “Commissioners’ Records 3”.
It appears that within each book, every page was not used. Approximately 235 marriages are indexed as being in County Commissioners’ Book 1. The marriages are recorded on pages: 266-270, 279, 293-296, 319, 324-325, 328, 329, 333, 338-342, 344-349.
Approximately 700 marriages are indexed as being in County Commissioners’ Book 3 . The marriages are recorded on pages 278 and 300-370.
Approximately 425 marriages are indexed as being in Marriage Book 1. The marriages are recorded on pages 26-35, 43-49, 52-58, 61, 64, 69, 87-94, 97, 101, 104-106, 108-109, 113-119, 122-126, 134-135, 141-149, 174-181, 213, 215.
Approximately 1,150 marriages are indexed as being in Marriage Book 2. The marriages are recorded on pages 1-85 and pages 87-167. Approximately 2,800 marriages are indexed as being in Marriage Book 3. The marriages recorded on pages 1-52, 54-66, 68-74, 76-82, 86-90, 92-98, 100, 102, 104-116, 118, 120-122, 124, 126-136, 138, 140-146, 148, 152, 154, 156-170, 172, 174, 176, 178, 180-186, 188, 190-203, 205-211, 213-219, 221, 223-225, 227, 229, 231-233, 235, 237, 239, 241, 243-246, 248, 250, 252, 254, 256, 258-260, 262, 264, 266-268, 270, 272, 274, 276-300.
It is likely the information about the marriage was initially recorded at the time of the marriage. At some later date those marriages were compiled and submitted to the county where someone transferred that information into the record book. At some unknown time that information was typed onto the index cards. I then entered that information into the spreadsheet in 2009-2010. This obviously allows many chances for errors, but I am hopeful that if you have a “missing” marriage this information will help you know where to search for a primary record of the event. Special thanks to County Administrator, Robin Weeks, and Deputy Administrator, Robin Black, for their assistance with this project and to Bruce Patten and Carol Dolan for several hours of typing.
Earth Base Zero 