Florida Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in the Collection?
This index is an electronic index for the years 1837 to 1974. This index is not complete for any particular place, region or time period. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.

Coverage Table and Map
A coverage table for this collection is available is the wiki article Florida Marriages, Coverage Table (FamilySearch Historical Records).

To see a coverage map of FamilySearch's holdings of Florida marriages, click here. For details about the contents of these records and help using them see the wiki article Marriages Vital Record Index Collections (FamilySearch Historical Records).

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Marriage records may possibly contain the following information:
 * The name of bride and groom.
 * The date of marriage.
 * The place of marriage.
 * Witnesses to the marriage and possible relatives.

How Do I Search the Collection?
Before searching the collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate date of death.
 * The place where the death occurred.
 * The names of family members and their relationships.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s marriage record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * The information in marriage records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1900.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one marriage record to another record.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying you sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

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