Gleaning More Information From Marriage Records
If you are searching your family tree, you will realize that not only is this both enjoyable and interesting but also extremely frustrating when you come to a dead end. Many of the fact-finding exercises involve plowing through certificates and vital records, and this is where you will come across details of weddings and marriages. While searching through this paper trail can be exciting, it can also provide conflicting information to the researcher, and this is where marriage records can play an important role.
Both birth and death records are pertinent to the individual you are currently researching. However, if you cannot find certain details, or indeed, you come across conflicting details from either certificate, you can rely on marriage records to shine more light on queries or even confirm pieces of information you are unsure of. Marriage records are a bridge between birth and death and can fill in the missing years.
Marriage certificates not only present the obvious details of a wedding but can also point you in directions you have not yet taken. With the added bonus of details about not one individual, but two, there is a lot of important information that you can begin studying in more detail.
Marriage records will include full details of an individual’s name, age, and also an address, occupation, and parents’ names and address too. Looking closer, you will also see the names of the witnesses who were present on the big day, and you may be able to work out what relationship they had to the happy couple. The locality of the wedding can also provide you with clues on other avenues to explore, such as where the couple originated from or lived.
Apart from the actual marriage certificates which were part of civil registration, there are also other records available when looking for details of a marriage. If you are aware of the location of where the couple in question lived, then the local church will probably have details within their parish records. Historical societies and state and county archives could also hold marriage details too.
There are many ways in which to gain access to these records. There is the obvious application form or trip to your local registry or records office, but there are also a host of different online databases and websites that have these details on hand, already digitally recorded, at the touch of a key.
Although there are some free sites available with enough information to find key details held on record, namely county or local projects, most of the larger and more detailed databases have a subscription fee attached. There are various ways to pay these subscriptions and access the relevant records, so you should get a good look at the many different sites to determine which one offers the most and for the best price. Some sites can provide the researcher with fully comprehensible details, whereas others, while free to search, require payment to see any details on record.
So next time you hit a brick wall or wish to cross examine information already received, search through your ancestors’ marriage records to see if they can shed light on any queries and perhaps even complete the full picture.
