Colorado Marriages 1859-1939 Groom Index Intro, Vital Rec COLORADO MARRIAGES 1859 - 1939 (BY GROOM ONLY & "A" NAMES, ONLY) Copyright (c) 1994 by John Chandler Clement, Denver, Colorado. All rights reserved except permission granted to reproduce or distribute to not-for-profit individuals or organizations. USGenWeb Project NOTICE In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other presentation. For specific word searches of this index, use the "Find" or "Search" feature of your browser. Colorado Marriages 1859-1939 for grooms Aa to Zzz. An addendum, or a temporary holding file for certain marriages not included in the other alphabetical files. See "Colorado Marriages - Readme first" for explanation. De Aguerris, Albino; Emilia Sambran 20 Nov 1895 Huerfano 16718 del Aquilla, Nicholas; Marion Jenkins 09 Aug 1934 Denver 2393 Domerrico, Aberto; Periga Allesandro 13 May 1895 Fremont 1164 Harding, Floy H.; Theodora R. Alpenfels 24 Dec 1932 Las Animas 149 Muser, Ross A.; Ardell J. Amolsch 21 Apr 1926 Denver 104035 Nicoletti, Guiseppi; Gabriele Anselino 08 Jan 1905 Denver 34926 Nunez, Jesus; Apalinai Andrade 14 Nov 1906 Pueblo 9073 Rising, George; Jesse H. Abels 12 Sep 1910 Denver 49778 Ritchey, Pearlie; Pearl E. Andrews 03 Jul 1907 Douglas 543 Short, Edmund H.; Millie E. Ashford 23 Nov 1873 Denver Vallejos, Leonardo; Bianicia Abeyta 14 Jan 1921 Las Animas 3749 Whitlock, Ray; Jesse L. Atchison 13 Aug 1900 Teller 398 Zefina, Conijilbo; Mary Abelino 28 Jul 1890 Las Animas 1214 README.1ST (5 July 1994) Colorado Marriages 1859-1939 As the marriage index is developed, files will be generated holding grooms with surnames starting Aa to Azz, then Ba to Bzz, etc. There will also be a small temporary holding file for grooms from Aa to Zzz not otherwise listed. How to read the file. Each line consists of: Groom last name, groom first name; Bride first and last name, date of marriage, county where license was issued and license number. WPA Project In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), working through the Division of Vital Statistics, indexed all marriages statewide for Colorado from the time of the gold-rush (1858) to 1939. The information was typed onto index cards and included the names of the bride and groom, their ages, race, date and place of marriage, name of the official who performed the ceremony, his title and address, name of the clerk who reported the event to the Division of Vital Statistics and the clerk's address, license number, and county where the license was issued. The index cards were then filed alphabetically only by the surname of the groom. The entire card file was microfilmed and the 114 reels are available to researchers at the Social Sciences/Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library and the Colorado State Archives. The original card index is now held by the Colorado State Archives. No index for the brides was ever generated. The title of the microfilm erroneously implies that the earliest marriages in the collection date back no earlier than the year 1900. In reality, all recorded marriages throughout Colorado from the gold-rush days of 1858-1859 to 1939, when the WPA concluded its work, are included. A New Project It is quite obvious that, without a bride's index, the 114 rolls of microfilm are only fifty percent helpful to genealogists. As overwhelming as the task of creating one is, a team of dedicated volunteers, organized in 1992, has now vowed to achieve that goal. The project has been divided into several manageable segments based on each letter of the alphabet. As each segment is completed, it will be turned over to the Denver Public Library for publication. How to Use this Index Colorado Marriages 1859-1939 includes only the names of the groom and bride, date of marriage, county where marriage was recorded, and the license number. After locating the name of the groom or bride in this index, the researcher can go to the microfilmed groom's index to obtain the remainder of the information, and/or directly to the appropriate county records for a copy of the document. A word about the "License Number." In some cases the number appears to be the license number and in others, book and page. This license number may or may not be helpful in locating the document. About the Original WPA Index No matter how dedicated the WPA indexers might have been, as with nearly all published works of any size, there were errors in dates, ages, and the interpretation and recording of the names of the participants. Some filling errors were made by those who maintained the card file. When the cards were microfilmed either those errors were retained, or the microfilmers made additional errors. WPA indexers occasionally entered the bride's name on the line where the groom's name should have been, and groom's name on the bride's line. This type of error is obvious only in the first few pages where the bride's surnames begin with "A". Even more frequently, WPA indexers entered names for the bride which ordinarily are understood to be masculine, and names for grooms which would ordinarily be understood as feminine. In this case, a second entry has been made, transposing the bride's and groom's names. When a bride's entry has the surname of a previous husband and/or a maiden name, a second entry has been made. The condition of the WPA's typewriter ribbons added even more problems. Overused ribbons at times resulted in nearly illegible microfilm copy. New ribbons often caused blurring of letters. At all times, it was especially difficult to determine whether a letter was an "a", "o", or "u". The researcher is cautioned to search for all these spelling variables.