Texas, Marriage Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Texas

What is in the Collection?
This collection contains indexes of marriage license applications from all counties in the state of Texas for the years 1966 to 2010. The indexes were prepared by the Vital Statistics Unit of the Department of State Health Services and have been published on the Department's website.

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

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Texas Marriage Indexes usually contain the following information:


 * Age of Bride
 * Age of Groom
 * Bride's Given Name(s)
 * Bride's Last Name
 * Groom's Given Name(s)
 * Groom's Last Name
 * Calculated birth year for bride and groom
 * County Code
 * Full date of Marriage
 * Place of Marriage

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.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the boxes on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals 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 look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * 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.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * 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.

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

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor in the marriage index, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details such as a title, an occupation, or land ownership. Add this new information to your records of each family. You should also look for leads to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the marriage index to locate the actual marriage record
 * Use the marriage information to identify a church your family attended
 * Use the found information to search additional records about your family

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

 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby counties.

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):