Washington, Pierce County Marriage Returns - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States WashingtonPierce County

What is in the Collection?
This collection includes marriage records recorded within Pierce County for the years 1891 to 1950. 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 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.

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.

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

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
These marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date of license
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Name and age of groom
 * Number or marriages for groom
 * Race, residence and occupation of groom
 * Birthplace of groom
 * Name of groom's parents, including maiden name of mother
 * Name and age of bride
 * Number of marriages for bride
 * Race, residence and occupation of bride
 * Birthplace of bride
 * Names or bride's parents, including maiden name of mother
 * Name and title of person performing ceremony
 * Names of witnesses and their residence(s)

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate date of marriage.
 * The place where the marriage occurred.
 * The name of the intended spouse.

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the "Browse" link in the initial collection page ⇒ Select the "County" category ⇒ Select the "Record Type, Date Range and Volume" category which takes you to the images.

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 birth dates or ages along with the places of birth of to find birth, death and census records. These records may lead you to find additional family members.
 * Check church and land records for additional information. 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.
 * Check former residences to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * 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.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found to find more generations of the family.

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.
 * 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 for the marriage record of the marriage partner if known.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

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:

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