Marriage & Death Notices from the Southern Christian Advocate, 1837-1860. (Vol. #1)

The Southern Christian Advocate was the publication of the Methodist Conference of both South and North Carolina, Georgia and Florida for the period 1837-1878.  It also covered other states as well, such as: Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and occasionally containing notices from other states as well.  Vol. #1 contains the names of approximately 70,000 individuals and Vol. #2 which covers the Civil War period, contains the names of approximately 30,000 individuals.  The marriage notices will often times have “son of” “daughter of” etc..  This is very important source for information when doing Methodist ancestry.  Considering that the State of South Carolina did not officially start keeping vital records until 1911, these notices take on an added importance.  North Carolina requirement for marriage licenses (as opposed to bonds) did not come into effect until 1868.  And some Georgia counties have lost their marriage records.  Considering the time frame of these books makes these marriage notices important because many times couples will move away from where they were married and finding a marriage record can be very difficult to locate if the county and state of the marriage are not already known.  The death notices within these books are mini biographies of the deceased persons, often times giving places of birth and former residences.  During the Civil War years, many persons could not afford tombstones or erected only wooden markers which have not survived and hence these books become even more important to the researcher.