Georgia, Hall County, Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Georgia Hall County

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of images of marriage licenses acquired at the Hall County Courthouse in Gainesville, Georgia. Marriages were recorded by the clerk of the district court for each county from the time the county was formed. Persons desiring to marry obtained a license that they presented to the minister or other person authorized to marry, such as a justice of the peace. Once the marriage was performed, the officiator sent a return to the clerk confirming that the marriage had occurred. Civil marriage records were created to legalize marital relationships and to protect the interests of the wife and other heirs to legal claims on property. The records are arranged by county, then by volume and year range. Marriage records were generally well preserved, although fires, floods, or other disasters may have destroyed some. The earliest records were usually handwritten on loose papers and later bound into lettered volumes. Some marriage records had multiple entries on each page while others had single records per page. The marriage date, place, residence of the bride and groom, and occupations are relatively reliable. Other information, such as age or birthplace, is dependent on the knowledge, memory, and accuracy of the informants, usually the bride and groom.

For a summary of this information see the wiki article: United States, How to Use the Records Summary.

Coverage Map
To see a coverage map of FamilySearch's holdings of Georgia marriages, click here.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
The license and certificate include:


 * Name of the groom
 * Name of the bride, often including the maiden name of the bride
 * Names of the officiators
 * Marriage date
 * Filing date

The waiver may also include:


 * Names of bride's parents
 * Parents' residence

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:


 * The names of the bride and groom.
 * The approximate marriage date.
 * The ages of the bride and groom.

Compare the information on the image to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several images before you find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page then: ⇒Select the appropriate "County" ⇒Select the appropriate "Record Type, Year Range, and Volume number or letter"

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the age to calculate a birth date and to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members. Witnesses or bondsmen were usually relatives.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Georgia, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the Georgia Archives and Libraries.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image. Collection Citation:

Image Citation: