Marriage records are awesome. I kid you not, they may not contain a ton of information but what they do contain can be a great deal of help for you. They are not also, necessarily, the next step that you have to take, but in my opinion, they are one of the easiest steps to take.

Now, once again, I am still learning as I go, so I can’t say that anything I tell you is going to be valid for all states, but I would think that most states in the US are open to people’s research. Except California, of course… ahem. (In CA to request things like marriage records, you must prove that you are a descendant of said individual or other very close relative such as sibling, next of kin, or a funeral director [death certificates].) As I find out otherwise, I will update this post as well.

Marriage records in the United States are held in the Recorder’s Office in the courthouse. A courthouse is in the county seat of whatever county you are searching in. This may or may not be the biggest city in the county and may or may not be the central city in the county. If you’re unsure which city the courthouse is in, a simple search on Yahoo Yellow Pages will give you the answer. Of course, you can also search online, but unfortunately, actual marriage records seem to be few and far between, especially with actual images/scans. You may also be able to find someone online who will go to the courthouse for you either when they are going, or because they live nearby. You’ll find that most genealogists who are able are willing to help others for very low to no costs. I have met more than one willing individual, and have, in turn, been one of those people for someone else.

When you find the Recorder’s Office, tell them that you want to look through the old marriage records. Technically, these are public record and they should have no problem showing you the ropes and letting you look through the books yourself. Afterall, they’d rather you look for what you need, then they waste their time doing it. :P

If you’re lucky, that county will have the records computerized where you can just enter in a last name and do a search. If not, all the books have indexes. Actually, our tiny county I live in has been the only one I’ve been to that has had the records computertized. Of course, I have not actually done St. Louis yet…

The indexes will either be in separate books than the records, at the beginning of the records, or both. Books are categorized by year, for instance, you may find a book for 1805 through 1870 or another for 1956 to 1958. Of course, as areas got more populated, the books would have covered fewer years and had more individuals in them. Select the book that you need, and take a look through the indexes. They are usually listed by groom’s name with the bride across the way, and some may have another index that lists the records by bride. If you’re very unlucky, the earliest books may be indexed only by date (order of entry). Find the people you need and the book will tell you how to locate the record.

Now, reading the record…

The types of records you will find may vary greatly, especially when you consider how the times have changed since this country was started. Most of my research has been on the Western side of the Mississippi River, so most records can only go back as early as, say, the 1820′s or so. In my experience, I have found that the earlier the record, the more confusing it can be. For instance, here is a record from 1868:

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It reads:

Married by the undersigned on the 24th of November 1868 Jules Benjamin Thomure to Elvina Labruyere, Ste. Genevieve this 25th November 1868

Filed for record Feby 19th 1869

Fr Xav Weitp
JP

Or at least, that’s what I’m sure it says. As you can figure, old writing is often hard to read.

Now that record gives you the basics: name of groom, name of bride, date of marriage, city of marriage, who married them. Not much else, however.

Then we have a record from 1888:

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As you can already see, this record is showing a bit more information than the last. It’s also from a different county than the last. We have here the county and basic location of the marriage (the bride’s home, though it doesn’t say specifically where that was), and basic locations of where each party of the couple lived – Castor Township in Stoddard Co. Also interesting, are the fields where the person who filled out the form noted that he was above 21 years of age and she was above 18 years of age. (Still in Missouri, the laws are that to be married without parental consent, a man must be at least 21 and a woman must be at least 18… well, unless it’s 18 for both now, but it wasn’t 6 years ago. They can also be married with parental consent/signature if they are 16.) Finally, we have the date of application for marriage, and the actual date of marriage, as well as who married them, and a few other minor things.

When I first got my hands on this record (these are my great-great-great-grandparents), it gave me an extra clue to their birthdates and where to look for them on census records – in that township that was given.

Along similar lines, this next record was for a groom over 21, and a bride under 18. As you will see if you view it larger, her father signed his name that he consented, after it was noted that her mother and father gave their consent. This was a step forward for me at that time as well, because it confirmed her father’s name for me.

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And here is another where the parents had to give consent:

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That’s a set of my great-grandparents. You will notice in this one, however, that both parties are underage and the parents not only gave consent, but a parent of each is named: his father, and her mother. However, I just noticed something – and this is completely off-topic – I am not sure why her father is not listed, according to my records, he had not died yet, but was about seven months from his passing. Possibly he was sick? Anyway, moving along. In this one, only a city, again is listed for location, but in some – as in the case of his parents – you will actually see a more specific location such as the church.

Finally, as one last example, you may start finding pretty elaborate certificates like this one. However, you will notice that even though this is the most recent one I’m showing (1938), it certainly does not have the most information. This may be because the state (or county) started doing two documents, like they do now. One where we fill out the actual information and one that’s more decorative for framing or scrapbooking, containing only the minimal information. I got this document from a cousin, it’s possible the other document is out there somewhere (I haven’t had a chance to look yet).

That’s it for marriage certificates now, but hopefully you can see some of the information that can be listed on them and why they can be helpful. Often times I have known who my male ancestor was, and a marriage certificate/license revealed to me the name of my female ancestor. Other times, it has just plain proven what I believed to already be true. Of course, there’s the date issue. Etc.

I plan to try and get some photos soon of what a typical recorder of deed’s place looks like, and a typical marriage record book. So if you are interested in that, check back sometime after Wednesday the 16th, if I get a chance to any time soon, it will be on the 16th! :-)

The very first thing you should do when starting to research your family?

Talk to your family.

Ask your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins, and any other family members and close family friends about your history. They will (hopefully) be able to give you some great starting places. Write down and grab anything you can get your hands on:

Names

First, middle, last, nicknames, anything anyone can remember.

Be sure and write them down as they’re told you and keep in mind that you can’t always rely on grandma’s memory. Especially when you get a bit further back in history, sometimes names changed or weren’t recorded properly in all places.
For instance, my dad’s mother’s maiden name had an “ea” in it. However, her brother’s descendants spell the name with an “ee.” Her father, at some point in life, started spelling his name “ee” and it was passed on that way to his only son, even though he himself had signed the name at his marriage (for one) as “ea.” Grandma told me that he claimed everyone else spelled it that way, so why shouldn’t he?

Also, on my mom’s side, I was always told that my great-great-great-grandfather’s name was Henry Charles. Come to find out, it’s not, it’s not even close, it was Jules Benjamin. His father was named Charles. But no Henry there that I know of. However, because my great-grandmother always said that that was her grandfather’s name, everyone believed her. I also came to find out that her father’s birth name is not what is on his tombstone. Somewhere along the line, he took his second middle name as his first name and a shortened version of his first name as his middle name.

Yup, it can get quite confusing.

Don’t forget those nicknames, either. If they’re not at least interesting, you may later find your ancestor documented by his/her nickname.

Dates

Grab any dates that your mom and grandma, or whoever, can remember. But again, always keep in mind that what you get may not be all that accurate, this is just your starting place. Of course, the most important dates are birthdates, deathdates, and dates of marriages. However, if you really get into this, you will find other dates to, at least, be interesting, if not to help you solve some other mystery, like christenings, confirmations, baptisms, bruials, etc. You may also eventually find it interesting to think about where your ancestors lived and what they did throughout time. Census records will help you with that, showing you where they lived every ten years (if you can find them, haha).

Locations

Location, location, location! Right? Locations are obviously quite important. Knowing your ancestors were in the United States isn’t much help, but if you can narrow that down to a state and then a county, you’re on the right track.

A new concept to some of you out there will be the township. In the United States (as far as I’m aware, all states do this, though they may not all call them “townships”), we have states then counties (or parishes in Louisiana) then townships then census districts (not all years) then cities and towns, etc. Of course, this will be slightly different if you’re looking at an independent city like St. Louis, but for the most part, this will be quite helpful. If nothing else, you may find that your ancestors stayed in one specific township for their birth, life, death, and narrowing it down to a township may help you find them quicker on census records and maybe even in cemeteries.

Record Your Info

Of course, you’re going to need a way to record all this information. You can get yourself a book, program, or even a website. The image at the left is the book that we have. I bought it many years ago, it was something like $7 at Walmart. Amazon doesn’t have it readily available and this one appears to be another version of the same book. This book is simple enough, a great place to get started and to compile some basic information. It has pages for your immediate family (if you’re married), the husband’s immediate family, the wife’s immediate family, your children, grandchildren, etc. It then moves on to ancestry in a pedigree format. The further you go, the deeper it gets, and you can record up to six generations in the pedigrees (your great-great-great-grandparents). There are then pages to discuss siblings to you, your parents, your grandparents, etc. This is for the first half of the book, the second half has pages to record various information such as immigration, weddings, occupations, religious activities, addresses, schools, organizations, military service, friends, pets, automobiles, heirlooms, sports, hobbies, illnesses, vacations, reunions, traditions, stories, and so much more. Just remember one thing, you might want to record in pencil until you’re sure you’ve got all the right info. ;-)

Desktop programs are wonderful. They help you to interlink much information and people and can even usually generate reports for you. I have been using Family Tree Maker 2006, although I’m not sure why, I wasn’t that happy with version 2005. I guess I figured I would give it a second try. The program I really liked… well, they don’t make it anymore and the version I have doesn’t like my large database and often crashes. There are many free programs out there, too, look into Personal Ancestral File 5 or Legacy 6. I’ve also heard that Brother’s Keeper is a good program, but I’ve never used it myself. ($45) Cyndi’s List also has a very large database of genealogy software.

I maintain both a desktop database and an online one. My old software used to generate static html pages, one for each family, and while it worked for a while, it was quite hard to edit and add new individuals. So my search for a good script began. I looked everywhere and tried everything. I was finally happy with phpMyFamily, in fact, very happy, and I have been using it since late 2003 or very early 2004, somewhere in there. Having a website displaying your genealogy can be especially helpful if you’d like to meet online with people who share your genealogy who may be able to help you with information you don’t have. I’ve met more than one family member in this way, even some that are relatively close. These family members have sent me information, photos, documents, etc. Also, I don’t know about other scripts, but with phpMyFamily you can create other users and allow them to add information to your site as well. You can also specify a specific date after which all individuals born thereafter will have their information protected. Here are some examples:

– Holifield/Doria Genealogy
– Reed & Lurk Families
– Naeger-Vargo Families

Here ends part one, is there anything you’d like to see in part two?