The Southern Christian Advocate was the publication for the Methodist Conferences of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, for the period covered in this volume. It was published in Macon, Georgia, through the issue of May 28, 1878. After a brief hiatus the Southern Christian Advocate was re-established in Columbia, South Carolina, as the publication for the South Carolina Conference. Publication continued in Macon for the Georgia and Florida Conferences, but the title of the newspaper was changed to the Wesleyan Christian Advocate with the issue of June 4, 1878. Marriage notices are included which appeared in the four June 1878 issues of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, since the South Carolina ministers appear to have been still sending in marriage notices to be published and because these issues are available on the same roll of microfilm.

The marriage notices which were published in the Southern Christian Advocate are largely from South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but there are a significant number of marriage notices from North Carolina and Alabama with a few notices from other states as well. All of the marriage notices are of interest, as a marriage notice might name a parent or another relative of the bride which would not appear on a marriage license. Additionally, there have been relatively few marriage records published for the period covered in this volume. It is not unusual to find notices of couples for which the bride and groom were residents of different counties, especially in Georgia. Since South Carolina did not require marriage licenses until 1911, the notices of South Carolina marriages are very valuable. North Carolina's marriage license law did not take effect until 1868. Therefore, the North Carolina marriage notices are of value as well. A full-name index completes this work.