If you have been wondering if you can look up marriage records the short answer is yes. As a matter of speaking marriage records are public records and part of vital records family of death, birth, and divorce records. These vital records are managed and stored at the county clerk’s office.
Search services and county clerk’s office along with the states department of health will allow you to look up marriage records either online or in person. Vital records are public in nature so finding them is possible. All that is needed online for marriage records would be a first and last name to start a search.
The Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal law that requires partial or full disclosure of unreleased information and documents that are controlled by the U.S. Government upon their requests. That are nine exemptions to the statute. This law was signed on July 4, 1966, by Lyndon B. Johnson.
How to look up marriage records online?
Use a search service. Why? Because it is the easiest way to find public record data including marriage records and other vital data. All that is needed is the first and last name to get going. The search service is great because it is one of the quickest ways to find the following type of records:
- Vital records
- Contact Information
- Criminal and arrest records
- Phone numbers
- Emails
- Relatives
- License information
- Bankruptcy data
- And more…
Check out the best search services to use to find marriage record and more below.
County Clerk Offices
The county clerks office is another great resource to find vital records including marriage. Again, if you know what county the marriage took place in then you can try looking for these records by either going to the county clerks office in person, calling them directly or trying to run a search online through their website. If you are not sure what county the marriage took place then you are better off using a search service to locate this data.
Using the United States Census Website for Genealogy
You can also search the Census website of the United States to find your Ancestors marriage records. Keep in mind that Decennial Census records are confidential for 72 years. This is to protect the respondents’ privacy.
Records that fall from 1950 to 2010 can ONLY be viewed by the person that is named on the record or their heir after submitting the right form. To find this form (BC-600) Form.
Records from 1790 to 1940 are not from the United States Census Bureau but instead are housed and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration. You can view that link here.
Department of Health in your state will allow you look up Marriage Records
You can try searching as well from your state Department of Health website. Below is a list of all Department of Health websites to help you find Marriage records. Each one of the links below will have a vital record section within there website. It will give you complete information on what is needed in the state to view and obtain vital records.
Can you look up marriage records for free?
Not that we are aware of. Most of these records including official certified records from the state all come with a cost. A search service can when available obtain if someone is married or divorced, but again these are not free and come with a small fee for running the search. A lot of questions are asked about finding these types of records for free.
If you are dating someone and want to know if he or she is married you could ask. if you feel like the answer you get is not truthful or you feel like your gut is telling you otherwise then the small price you would have to pay for peace of mind is well worth knowing if the person your dating or wanting to get serious with is married.
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