Liberia, Vital Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Liberia

What is in the Collection?
This collection includes records from 1941-1974. It contains applications for marriage licenses, marriage licenses, marriage returns, and documents certifying marriages from Liberia. The original records are located in the National Archives located in Monrovia, Liberia.

What Can This Collection Tell Me?
Marriage records may include:
 * Name
 * Date of application
 * Date and place of birth
 * Occupation and place of employment
 * Names of former spouses
 * Father’s name and address
 * Mother’s maiden name and address
 * Name of intended spouse
 * Proposed date of marriage
 * Place of marriage
 * Who performed the ceremony
 * Witnesses
 * Signature of bride and groom

How Do I Search the Collection?

 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate marriage date,
 * The place where the marriage occurred.
 * The name of the intended spouse.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to 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 appropriate "Year and Volume" which takes you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

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 Who 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 birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Use the parents’ birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * If the officiator of the marriage was a minister, you may be able to determine to which religion your ancestor practiced, and provide a clue for searching church records.
 * If the bride and groom were from different localities, try searching the records of both places for birth records.
 * Be sure to record the bride’s and/or mother’s maiden names. That information is often not recorded in other records
 * In some cases, the witnesses were relatives of the bride or groom

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

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

 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life. Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * 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.
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities. Be aware that boundary changes could have occurred and the record of your ancestor is now in a neighboring locality.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 * Occupations often help to differentiate between individuals of the same name
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

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):

Image Citation: