In 1868, North Carolina transferred the power to issue marriage licenses to the county register of deeds making the license the only public record of a marriage. The information contained in marriage licenses varies across counties and time periods, and though the amount of information has increased over the years, the accuracy was dependent on the person applying for the license. Though some licenses were issued earlier, prior to 1868 the only required public record of marriage was the Marriage Bond, which is its own category and has a statewide index available at the Archive.