Early Ohio marriages are sometimes very disappointing. But they are what we have. What you see is what you get. The mandate for those recording these events was to provide the names, the date, and the identity of the person performing the official ceremony. Parent's names, witnesses, ages, and precise locations are only available by accident. The few exceptions are noted below. Sometimes you can learn the name of a responsible party (parent/cousin/guardian) if a person is underage when they marry. Sometimes the township was entered and helps to pinpoint the location in the county. But all that was -required- was the names of those being married , the date the ceremony was performed, and the name/title of the person who made that official.
The marriages in this collection were first read and typed by Ruth Bowers and her daughter Anita Short in the 1960's. Their transcription was re-keyed/input into dBASE format for the Miami Valley Genealogy Index. As there were obvious errors in the Bowers/Short transcription, additional changes and corrections have been made to the database for this compilation.
All marriages are listed twice: once for the bride and once for the groom. While this makes the whole file twice as large, it also keeps all the names in the same index. This is particularly useful for seeing -all- the members (brothers and sisters) of families who were married during this period in Preble County. A spearate Bride's Index is not needed.
If you want an uncertified photocopy of one of these records, contact the Preble County Room of the Preble County District Library in Eaton, OH, to make arrangements. The Library has the original record books in the Library. Should you request a photocopy, please include volume and page number where noted to help library staff locate the particular record you want.
Use of the alphabet tables will speed movement to the various letters of the alphabet. After each letter's entries, a link to return to the alphabet table for the page will be provided. A link at the end of each page will return you to this general explanation page. You will probably need to scroll your browser to the right to see the full record as each marriage is stretched along one line.