Marriage Registers and the Records They’re Made Of

By definition, marriage registers contain a listing of written records of marriages that took place within a given jurisdiction. Records found in marriage registers normally come from other legal documents like marriage licenses, marriage registry returns, marriage certificates, banns, and marriage bonds.

The information contained in marriage registers reflects all the collected, processed, corrected, and updated data that have been compiled from marriage records.

Marriage registers are also the basis for the issuance of marriage certificates. Marriage certificates cannot be issued unless the union is officially and legitimately listed in the marriage registers. The form of marriage certificates vary per location but always contain basic information about the couple.

For many countries, marriage registers are indexed at the provincial or national levels. In the United States however, every state is given the freedom to regulate marriage and marriage registers are kept at the state or county levels.

Marriage registers can provide any researcher with a wealth of genealogical information which can be used to track down other ancestors and other sources of primary and secondary data.

Marriage registers are widely accessible in most places and information can even be gathered online. Many states allow their marriage registers to be openly searched, either for personal reasons like checking out a future husband or for legal reasons like establishing one’s status as a spouse and/or the legitimacy of one’s children.

Marriage registers normally contain the names of the bride (and her maiden name) and groom, their ages when they married, the names of their parents, the date of marriage, the location of the event, and the name of the person who performed the ceremony.

Getting Into Marriage Registers

Before a couple gets married, they are often required to post their marriage banns at a public marriage registry. The banns should include information regarding the place where the ceremony will be held, the wedding date, and the name of the official who will preside over the ceremony.

The purpose of the marriage banns is to give anyone with rightful objection to the marriage the chance to voice out his/her objections. Only after the prescribed period for public notice via the banns has elapsed (without objections from any individual) will the couple be issued a marriage license.

After the wedding ceremony, the marriage license is signed by both parties and returned to the county or state registry office for inclusion in the marriage registers. The married couple is then issued a marriage certificate some time after registration. Some states issue marriage certificates only after a formal application is filed and valid identification documents are produced.

In some countries like England, copies of marriage certificates are kept in two marriage registers – one is kept for the church records and the other in the general marriage registers office. 

Certain sects or groups believe that enlisting a marital union in marriage registers is unnecessary and/or even immoral. Some Christian sects deem marriage as an agreement between two people and God and thereby require no permission from the state. Groups like the Libertarian Party on the other hand, believes that marriage is a civil contract and should be kept independent from the state.

RecordsSiteReviews’ Marriage Records page has more resources about marriage certificates, including ways on how to acquire yours.