This work has abstracts of all marriage bonds issued in Rutherford County from 1779 to 1868, when marriage bonds–as prerequisite for marriage–were discontinued. These records were abstracted, in the main, from a microfilm copy of the original marriage bonds on file at the State Archives in Raleigh–a few directly from bonds and licenses in the county courthouse in Rutherfordton–and they refer to some 12,500 persons, including bondsmen. The arrangement is alphabetical by the name of the groom, and each entry includes the name of the bride, the date of the bond, the name of the bondsman and, from 1851, the date of the actual marriage.