Marriage Records Are Great Sources
- Leslie Ryan
- 40 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Happy Valentine's Day! As we celebrate love and relationships around the world, let's remember that marriage records are great sources of information for building your family tree, and you can see a lot of those for free.
Valentine's Day is the number one day for couples to get engaged around the world according to TheKnot.com. Also in their top ten are the Saturday before Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Day, and New Year's Eve. Why? They advise that these are festive times of family gatherings where a couple's joyful announcement can be quickly and easily shared.
Before exchanging vows couples apply for a marriage license from their local authorities both now and long ago. Some states required the names of both sets of parents, the number of prior marriages of each party, and the residences of the bride and groom to get a license. Many of these records are now available online and can be found for FREE.
FamilySearch has become my favorite source of free family tree sleuthing. There is no charge for opening an account and building an online tree. Here is a link to their marriage record lookups by state:
On that page you will also see links to other countries and religious marriage records as well as the nonreligious.
The free Genealogy based search engine I need to remember to make more use of is Cyndi's List. Here is the link to JUST the marriage records you will find there: https://www.cyndislist.com/marriages/
You could also find several records with a FREE Ancestry account. Yes, they do exist, in a limited way. I'm sure to get you to sign up for a paid account!
Once you are logged in, click on the "Search" button on the top menu and then click on "Card Catalog."
Filter by location, dates, and add what you know to see what you may find.
Your local library also may have the Ancestry Library version that you could access, as well as several other genealogical resources you could take advantage of and use for free!
If you would like some help with marriage records in your tree or DNA test results, please send me an email. I will review what you already have for free and help you make a plan to go ahead if I can!
Hope this finds you safe and warm! Fear not! Spring is coming bringing new opportunities and new growth to those who persist.
Best regards,
Leslie Ryan
No compensation is received for any referrals or information herein.
No copyright infringement is intended.
