Town and County Officers

Marriage records have been kept in New England by town clerks since 1629. As each county formed elsewhere, county clerks became responsible for maintaining marriage records. The earliest records date from the early 1700's in the South. Although each state now maintains marriage records, the original documents remain the responsibility of local town and county clerks. They forward a copy of the marriage record to the state.

The type and style of marriage record created in towns and counties varied from place to place. One or more of the following records may have been used to document marriages: bonds, certificates, consents, contracts, declarations of intent, licenses, registers, and returns. Uniform marriage records do not exist nationally, but each state has created a marriage record form for use in the towns and counties.

Write to the town or county clerk where you believe a marriage took place to obtain a copy of a marriage license. Be sure to include some payment for the search, usually $10.00 will be sufficient for a search covering a five-year period, and ask the clerk to send a bill for the balance owed. Obstacles to obtaining a marriage record include: Not knowing the state or county where a couple married. Not knowing the exact date or year of marriage. Incomplete or erroneous indexing. Illegible handwriting that a clerk cannot read. Asking a public record clerk to perform a complicated search, such as looking for a marriage over a twenty-year period.

The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the largest collection of published and microfilmed marriage records in existence. Those records can be used at the Main Library in Salt Lake City or at a Family History Center in other locations within Utah and elsewhere in the United States.

The early marriage records of many states have been extracted and entered into a database format for presentation on floppy disks and CD-ROM. Most vendors of genealogical products sell marriage records in those formats.

Suggested Reading: County Formation and Boundary Changes Andriot, John L., comp. and ed. Township Atlas of the United States. McLean, Va.: Documents Index, Inc., 1987. Eichholz, Alice, ed. Ancestry's Redbook: American State, County, and Town Sources. Rev. ed. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1992.

Long, John H., ed. Historical Atlas and Chronology of County Boundaries, 1788-1980. 5 vols. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1984. Vol. 1: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; vol. 2: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio; vol. 3: Michigan, Wisconsin; vol. 4: Iowa, Missouri; and vol. 5: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Kane, Joseph Nathan. The American Counties: Origins of Names, Dates of Creation and Organization Data, and Published Sources. 4th ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1983. Thorndale, William, and William Dollarhide. Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987.

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