Source Information

Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Marriages, 1852-1854 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data:

Secretary of the Commonwealth. Series 26.28, Record and Indexes of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. Microfilm, rolls 668-673. Records of the Department of State, Record Group 26. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

About Pennsylvania, U.S., Marriages, 1852-1854

This database contains copies of indexes and marriage records for 49 counties in Pennsylvania for the years 1852-1854. According to the Pennsylvania State Archives, these records are duplicate copies “sent by the Registers of Wills from many of the county seats to the Department of State.” They include records from the following counties:

Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clearfield, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Franklin, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Schuylkill, Somerset, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, York

What You Can Find in the Records

The marriage records can include the following details:

  • groom’s name
  • color/race
  • father and mother of groom
  • groom’s birthplace, residence, occupation
  • bride’s name
  • color/race
  • father and mother of bride
  • marriage date
  • marriage place
  • type of ceremony
  • name of officiant
  • name of person signing certificate
  • date of certificate
  • date of registration

The register pages often include two columns of written information; these will be details for two different marriages.