If you found your WHITEHURST family in the Marriages of Freed People of NC, that means that they were enslaved until after the Civil War ended. Those Cohabitation records are mostly for people who were considered married during their enslavement, and the State required them to have their marriages "officially" recorded, giving the dates or the number of years that they were married. This would mean that they were not covered by this book, since it only covers Emancipations of Individuals who were freed sometime prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, when all of the Slaves were supposedly freed. A good way to tell if someone was freed prior to that time is if you find them in the census prior to 1870, which is when all of the former slaves would have been counted in the Census. You might want to take a look at the Freedmen's Bureau Website, to see what kind of records might be available there that might have some info on your family. Here is the website:
http://freedmensbureau.com/

Deloris