Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019 - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Indiana

What is in the Collection?
This collection was indexed in partnership with the Indiana Genealogical Society. It consists of a name index to marriages recorded in the Indiana Territory and in the State of Indiana between 1811 and 2007.

Microfilm copies of original records are available at the Family History Library and at family history centers. FamilySearch has limited rights, granted by the record custodians, to publish these images for viewing online. Images for this collection are only available for viewing with an "Unofficial Record" watermark in place to keep the page from being printed as an original to comply with the record custodian restrictions.

Early county marriage records were handwritten into bound books with multiple entries to a page. Preprinted register books began to be used about 1850. By 1905, the printed format included only one entry on each page.

Collection Content
Clerks of the Circuit Court recorded marriages performed by religious or civil authorities. Records consisted of licenses, marriage returns and marriage entries. The state of Indiana began collecting marriages from the counties in 1958.

The marriage date, residence, and other facts that were current at the time the marriage occurred are quite reliable, though there is still a chance of misinformation. Other data such as age or birth place have more chance of error due to the lapse of time between marriage and birth.

Coverage Table
The following table shows the number of records in this collection by county. Because of privacy laws not all records may be available.

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

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Marriage records before 1882 usually contain the following information:


 * Marriage date
 * Marriage place
 * Names of the bride and groom

Marriage records from 1882 to 1905 may give the additional information:


 * Age, birthplace and residence of bride and groom
 * Names of parents of bride and groom, including mothers' maiden name
 * Race, color and nationality of bride and groom
 * Occupation of bride and groom
 * Number of the marriage for bride and for groom

Marriage records after 1905 may contain the additional information:


 * Birth date of the bride and groom (instead of the age)
 * Birthplace and residence of parents of bride and groom
 * Occupation, color and nationality are no longer given.

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 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 compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

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.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "County of Event - License or Marriage" ⇒Select the appropriate "Volume and Year Range" which takes you to the images.

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’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 place of residence to search for other records, such as church and land records, that may have information on parents and siblings.

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

 * 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.
 * Compiling the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual. This may also help you to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * The information in marriage records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one marriage record to another record.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached 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: