In the early 1800s settlers from Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee began to arrive in the Leslie County area of Eastern Kentucky. Leslie County, named after Kentucky's twenty-sixth governor, Preston Hopkins Leslie, was established March 29, 1878 by combining Perry County, Clay County and Harlan County. Its boundaries have remained unchanged. "The early marriage books of Leslie County are in bound volumes on large paper pages. All the books were microfilmed in 1988 by the Kentucky Department of Archives and Libraries." Early marriage books that were available to be microfilmed include: Marriage Book 1 1878-1885, Book 2 (Colored) 1878-1913, Book 3, 4, 5 and 6 did not exist in 1988, Book 7 1884-1895, and Book 7A 1895-1905. These volumes of valuable genealogical information have since been rebound and renumbered by the Leslie County Clerk's Office. Records are arranged alphabetically by the groom's last name, and contain information for bride and groom. Individual entries for each groom are followed by entries for their bride, and include (for both): full name, residence, age, number of marriages, occupation, place of birth, father's place of birth, mother's place of birth, date of marriage, Marriage Book volume number and page number. Several records include "Remarks" that were found on loose slips of paper placed in the record book by the clerk, and generally show that permission was granted for an underage child to marry.