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Rowan County at its formation in 1753 covered a large area, for it extended north to Virginia, and it had an indeterminate western boundary. It lay across the main migration route to the South and West, and it was peopled by pioneers of German, Scotch-Irish, and English extraction. It is their marriage records from 1753 to 1868 that form the basis of this work.

The marriage records abstracted here derive from microfilm copies of the original bonds and from a microfilm copy of a register of marriage bonds maintained from 1851 by the clerk of the county court. The arrangement is alphabetical by the surname of the groom, and each entry has the name of the bride, the date of the marriage bond and, where recorded, the names of the minister, witnesses, and bondsmen. About 9,000 marriage bonds are abstracted, and with the others mentioned, the text bears reference to nearly 25,000 persons.