Wake Wednesday - Cohabitation Record for a Christmas couple

I was searching for Christmas images and happened upon this image. It fit my search "Carolina Christmas," but it took me in and entirely different direction.

Source

This Wake County cohabitation record issued in 1866, records that Seth Christmas and Sallie Christmas "if said County, lately slaves, but now emancipated, and acknowledged that they do cohabit together as man and wife, and that said cohabitation commenced the 11 day of Oct.,1855. " The record was recorded by J. J. Ferrell.

I checked for more images but did not find them. This is a treasure indeed. Any Christmas descendants out there reading our blog?

If you would like to search for other similar documents, be to check the NC State Archives store where you may request a Cohabitation Bond and Record Lookup, 1866-1867. NC residents may request a search for free and be invoiced if a record is found. Nonresidents must pay a $20 search fee either way.

The following information is required for the search:

County
Name of Groom
Name of Bride

It is worth noting that there is one roll of digitized Cohabitation Record images for 1866 in Wake digitized at FamilySearch.org. The files are not indexed and require browsing. It would be useful to check both places. Check the North Carolina Cohabitation Records wiki to see what exists in what format in each county.

This was a lucky find when I was searching something else. I hope it helps someone's research.

Comments

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