Kansas County Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Kansas

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of an index and images of marriage registers and records made by county clerks in Kansas from 1855 to 1911. The type of record and time period varies between counties.

Records for the following counties are included: Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Brown, Chase, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Clay, Coffey, Crawford, Doniphan, Douglas, Elk, Franklin, Geary, Greenwood, Harvey, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Labette, Linn, Marshall, McPherson, Miami, Montgomery, Morris, Nemaha, Neosho, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Saline, Sedgwick, Wabaunsee, Washington, Wilson, and Woodson.

Counties recorded marriages to legalize marital relationships and to protect the interests of the wife and other heirs to legal claims on property.

The marriage date, place, and residence of the bride and groom 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.

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.

Marriages were usually 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. Marriage records were generally well preserved, although fires, floods, or other disasters may have destroyed some records.

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

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Early marriage records may include the following information:


 * Date of marriage license
 * Name of bride and groom
 * Age of bride and groom
 * Residence of bride and groom
 * Marriage date
 * Marriage place
 * Name of person performing the marriage

Later marriage records may also include the following:


 * Birthplace of bride and groom
 * Name of bride and groom’s parents
 * Occupation of bride and groom
 * Number of times previously married
 * Witnesses to the marriage
 * Residence of witnesses

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know at least some of the following:


 * 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.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page:

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

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 Kansas, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the Kansas Archives and Libraries.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

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: