Marriage Records
In my previous blog posts, we have begun to breakdown the topic of sources within the field of genealogy, and their role in building your family tree. In my latest post we broke down what birth documentation refers to and its importance as part of my blog post series on the different sorts of categories within “vital records.” Today we will explore a documentation type more closely that also makes up the “vital record” category, marriage documents.
Most of the time when you picture a marriage document what comes to mind is a marriage certificate, however there are other types of marriage related documentation that also exist. There are five main types of marriage documentation are banns, bonds, applications and licenses, certificates, the one in which we’re most familiar, and registers and returns. Out of these five two may be completely unfamiliar to you, banns, and bonds. Banns are announcements of an intent to marry, they usually are released a few weeks before the marriage date. Bonds on the other hand are written promises of payment. A contract of sorts, made by a groom or relative of the bride to guarantee a legal marriage. Related to marriage records are other documents you may want to search for. These include divorce records, remarriages, and evidence of marriages collected from various sources like the U.S. Census, family bibles, wedding announcements in the newspaper, etc. Remember once more that as your collecting evidence of marriage on a family member or members to make sure multiple sources you are finding corroborate information. This is a crucial step to make sure you are collecting accurate information.
At first seeking after information in this source category may feel overwhelming. That’s ok take a deep breath. To start, look for marriage records within the local regions (national, and local) that your relative may have lived. Most church or civil authorities that preform marriage ceremonies will keep some sort of record and are always available to the public. Once you have found this documentation it can really help you discover family lines, residence of your ancestors, occupations, relationship status, birth of bride and groom, etc. In turn that information might help lead you to addresses that might assist you in building the bigger story about one or two relatives’ lives, determine ancestors’ children that might help you expand your family tree, and or help you trace your family roots further back. As you can see from all the amazing benefits of finding just a few marriages documents a whole life story and bigger tree can be built. This is part of the reason genealogists consider marriage documents “vital.”
I hope as you continue your genealogical journey that you will have the best of luck seeking after these documents. In my next blog post I will be covering Researching How, Why and Where. Please see my webinars or contact me for more help on how to find, and store marriage documents if you are at all confused. They can be found on this website via the drop-down menu on the furthest most right-hand corner of the website.
Winona I Laird
