Wells–Doolittle Marriage
Today’s Friday Find comes from my WELLS notebook and features the marriage record of Nancy Wells and James Doolittle. The paper copy of this record has been in my files for years, originally shared with me by a Michigan researcher. Until recently, however, it existed only as an offline document in my collection.
With the expansion of FamilySearch’s full-text search, I was able to quickly locate this marriage record in the Calhoun County, Michigan records. Even better, I found both the digitized image and a machine-generated transcription of the original entry. This made it possible to verify the information, capture a proper citation, and finally connect this long-held paper record to its online source.
Below is the transcription of the marriage record, followed by the image as found on FamilySearch.
400
State of Michigan
County of Calhoun
James Doolittle
Nancy Wells
Married January 4th 1856
James Doolittle to Miss
Nancy Wells both of Clarendon
Witnesses Lima Rouge & Isaac Doolittle
Record , March 17 1856
J. Withall
Minister
S. S. [Lacy] CCM
“Calhoun, Michigan, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939J-4P95-G1?view=explore : Jan 31, 2026), image 441 of 1072; Michigan. County Court (Calhoun County). Image Group Number: 004653762
