With the appearance of this work, researchers of all stripes can set aside some of their concerns about the lack of published reference materials on Orange County, North Carolina. This book contains abstracts of all the marriage bonds issued in Orange County from 1779 until 1868, when marriage bonds--as pre-requisites for marriage--were discontinued. These marriage records were abstracted from a microfilm copy of the original marriage bonds on file at the State Archives in Raleigh and refer altogether to some 20,000 persons, including bondsmen. In keeping with the format established by Mr. Holcomb in his other volumes of North Carolina marriage records, the data are arranged throughout in alphabetical order by the surname 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.