Document C.82 · Marriage Bonds / Records · transcription: verbatim
Marriage bond, licence and celebrant's return of Dr J. A. Cooper and Miss Lelia F. Maynard, Coahoma Co., Mississippi — bond and licence 28 January 1880, ceremony 29 January 1880. Marriage Record Volume F (MIXED), book p. 313; DGS 007724158 image 201.
- repository
- FamilySearch
- date
- 1880-01-28
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooper, J. A. / Dr J A Cooper | groom | John Atkinson Cooper 1836–1914 | residence: 1880, Coahoma Co., Mississippi occupation: Dr |
| Maynard, Lelia F. / Miss Lelia F Maynard | bride | Lelia Frances (Maynard) Cooper 1857–1949 | |
| Simmons, J. L. | bondsman | J. L. Simmons candidate |
Transcription and notes
Book page 313 — the right-hand page of image 201. (The left-hand page, 312, is an unrelated bond: J. M. Byrom.) One couple per page; the page carries the bond, the licence and the celebrant's return in sequence.
Data from the document [verbatim]
Marriage bond
MARRIAGE BOND. THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, COAHOMA COUNTY. Know all Men by these Presents, That we, J A Cooper and J L Simmons of the County of Coahoma, and State of Mississippi, are held and firmly bound unto the State of Mississippi in the penal sum of Two Hundred Dollars, current money of the United States of America… WITNESS, our hand and seals, this the 28 day of January A. D. 187[80] The Condition of this Obligation is such, That, whereas application has this day been made to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the County of Coahoma, and State aforesaid, for the granting and issuing of License for the Marriage of Dr J A Cooper and Miss Lelia F Maynard Signed, Sealed and Delivered in presence of — J. A. Cooper [Seal] · J L Simmons [Seal] R W Harris, Clerk
On the year in the bond line: the form is preprinted "A. D. 187_" and the clerk has written 80 across the printed final digit, so the field reads as an overwritten 187/80. The year is not in doubt — the licence on the same page spells it out in words (below) — but the digits themselves are an alteration, not a clean reading.
Marriage licence
MARRIAGE LICENSE. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, Coahoma County. To any Judge, Minister, Justice, Or other Person Lawfully Authorized to Celebrate the Rites of Matrimony: You are Hereby Licensed To celebrate the Rites of Matrimony between Mr J A Cooper and M[iss] Miss Lelia F Maynard, and for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given under my hand and Official Seal this 28ᵗʰ day of Jany in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and Eighty. R W Harris, Clerk
Celebrant's return
THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, Coahoma County. By Virtue of a License From the Clerk of the Circuit Court of said County of Coahoma I have this day celebrated the Rites of Matrimony between Mr J A Cooper and M[iss] Lilia F Maynard Given under my hand and seal, this 29ᵗʰ day of Jany 187[80]. W P Barton M G [Seal]
The return spells the bride's given name differently from the bond and licence on the same page — it reads Lilia, where both earlier instruments read Lelia. Recorded as written in each. The middle initial is F throughout.
ℹ M G after the celebrant's name = the customary abbreviation for Minister of the Gospel. The document does not expand it.
Dates as the document gives them
| instrument | date | signed by |
|---|---|---|
| Bond | 28 January 1880 | J. A. Cooper; J L Simmons |
| Licence issued | 28 January 1880 | R W Harris, Clerk |
| Ceremony celebrated | 29 January 1880 | W P Barton, M G |
The FamilySearch index for this marriage gives 29 Jan 1880 — which is the return date, the ceremony itself, not the bond or licence date.
What the FamilySearch index says [verbatim]
J. A. Cooper — Lelia F. Maynard (spouse) Marriage: 29 Jan 1880 · Coahoma, Mississippi, United States film 007724158 · digital film 007724158
The index carries no image link (collection 1680835 is index-only), which is why the page had to be found by probing the reel.
Cross-references
- C.81 John A. Cooper × Sallie Warren 1872 — his first marriage, bond read; on the sibling reel 007724157 (Volume E)
- p.919 John Atkinson Cooper · p.1585 Lelia F. (Maynard) Cooper · p.1774 J. L. Simmons
- p.1583 — the first wife, d. 18 Dec 1876
- p.1162 Annie (Cooper) Sanders — daughter of the first marriage, aged 7 and living with this stepmother at the 1880 census ([D.487])
- films/film.007724158.yaml — the reel's anchors
How this page was found — and the search that failed first
Recorded because the failure is instructive, not because the outcome was hard.
The first search of this reel read images 63–72 and concluded the couple was absent from a window that covered the marriage date. Those images are January–February 1879. The year had never been read off any page — it was taken from the volume's title card ("VOLUME F · 1878-1880") and from the neighbouring pages, then written into the film file's anchors as though transcribed. The bond form is preprinted "A. D. 187_" on every image, which alone should have settled it.
The maintainer caught it by looking at image 70 and asking about the year. On the corrected anchor (image 68 = 29 January 1879), a twelve-month extrapolation put the target near image 215; probing 215 (16 Feb 1880), then 207 (7 Feb 1880), then 201 found it in three probes.
⇒ Every hypothesis raised to explain the couple's "absence" was explaining an artefact of a misread digit — separate white/colored registers, a late-recorded entry, a loose index film citation. The record was exactly where a chronologically ordered volume said it would be. See CLAUDE.md Rule Zero and guidance/feedback_never_infer_only_record_what_you_see.md.