Barnetta White in her book Somebody Knows My Name a compilation of the Cohabitation Lists of North Carolina lists a number of "marriages" for enslaved individuals with the surname MARTIN in Stokes County, that took place prior to the end of the Civil War and the general emancipation. The earliest relationship listed is between one Mary MARTIN and Tapley FOWLER - 1823

She writes, " The records for this county may be found "in a book for that purpose" on microfilm and loose in a folder in a box of miscellaneous papers for the county dating 1781 to 1932...Several sessions of cross checking to weed out duplicates resulted in records of 234 couples who acknowledged their marriages."

Selma