In the early 1800s persons who were licensed to perform marriages in New Brunswick were required to complete a marriage certificate and deliver it to the County Registry, where a clerk entered the information in a record book.

Generally, certificates were filed and registered within a few days to a few weeks. However, some certificates were not filed for several months, even a few years. And in at least one case certificates were lost at the time of a clergyman's death and were never recorded.

The handwriting on the marriage certificates was interpreted and recorded by the registry clerks, with varying levels of accuracy. Some clerks wrote legibly while the handwriting of others can be deciphered only with considerable difficulty, if at all. Also, over the years some of the ink has faded, which increases the degree of difficulty and the potential for error.  While every effort has been made to transcribe the records as written, including the spelling used by the recording clerk, it is certain that this collection contains inaccuracies.