District of Columbia, Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States District of Columbia

What is in the Collection?
Most of this collection consists of marriage licenses and certificates, including a few marriage declarations and marriage stubs for the years 1811 to 1950.

The records are arranged by county, then by volume and year range. The form type varies between register style and certificate style. County clerks usually used the same printed form during the same time periods. Marriage records were generally well preserved, although fires, floods, or other disasters may have destroyed some records.

The earliest marriage bonds and licenses were usually handwritten on loose papers that were later bound into lettered volumes. Some marriage records had multiple entries on each page, while others had single records per page.

Registration of marriages began in 1811. Some of the early marriages for the years 1811 to 1858 have been transcribed by the DAR and are on microfilm at the Family History Library( Film 845766). Easier-to-use versions of these records include:


 * DC marriage records 1811-1950; indexes, 1811-1986 ( Film 2079252).
 * Alexandria (DC) marriage certificates returned 1801-1850( Film 1902941 item 3).
 * DC marriage registers 1811-1870 ( Book 975.3 V28p) Early registers only contain the name of the bride and groom and the date of marriage.
 * DC marriage returns, 1874-1902, 1907-1923; consents, 1896-Dec. 1950 ( Film 2070925) These records may provide the name of the bride and groom, and their age, residence, color, occupation, birthplace and number of marriages.
 * DC newspaper marriage notices 1800-1850 ( Film 929472).

You can obtain marriage records from 1811 to the present by writing to:


 * Superior Court of the District of Columbia
 * Marriage License Bureau
 * 500 Indiana Avenue N.W.
 * Washington, DC 20001
 * Telephone: 202-879-4840
 * Internet: District of Columbia Courts

Marriages more than 50 years old are considered public record and no approval is needed to apply for a record copy.

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.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Groom's name and place of residence
 * Bride's name and place of residence
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names of witnesses
 * Name of officiator

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

Digital Folder Number List
This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. These collections do not include any human-readable waypoint data making them difficult to use. A table showing each DGS number and its contents can be found in District of Columbia, Marriages Digital Folder Number List. The list can be sorted by DGS number, GS number, author, title and film note with a link to the FamilySearch Catalog record for the original microfilm publication.

How Do I Search the Collection?
When searching the index it is helpful to know the following:


 * The name of the person at the time of marriage
 * The approximate marriage date or name of spouse

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

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

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to find other church and vital records such as birth, baptism, and death records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find land, probate and immigration records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in censuses. Witnesses were usually family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records were kept years before counties began keeping records. They are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

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

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
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Known Issues with This Collection
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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

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

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