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 MORE
INFORMATION
Marriage
SearchUSA provides copies of the Marriage
Certificate,
the document that proves
that the marriage occurred and is
legally binding. Read below to confirm
that it is a Marriage Certificate that you require and
NOT a Marriage License (yes, they are two different
documents!).
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There are two
separate documents: the marriage license
is a legal document that authorizes a designated
party to perform the ceremony, allowing you to
get married; and the marriage certificate
is the document that shows that the nuptials
took place and thus is the official document that
proves you are married.
When ordering a marriage
certificate, please give as much
information as you can. The marriage
certificate will have been filed at the the office of the
County Clerk, Recorder or Registrar of Vital
Statistics where the marriage
license was issued. This may not
always be the same place where the marriage
ceremony took place! So if you
remember that the ceremony occurred in
one town, it may be that the actual
marriage license was issued from a
different town nearby.
How can this happen? Well, lets
say that the groom lives in Denver,
Colorado, and he is dispatched by the
loving bride-to-be to get the paperwork
sorted out. He goes to the Office of
Vital Statistics down the street (in
Denver) and obtains the marriage
license.
However, the brides parents are holding
the ceremony in Boulder (only 30 miles
away). The nuptials take place on a
sunny day at the foot of the mountains
in Boulder in the garden, and the
signing by the parties and the witnesses
occurs there. THAT is where
everyone remembers the
"marriage" as having taken
place. The happy groom then goes back
home to Denver and files the marriage
license. The marriage certificate is
stored at the Denver Office of
Vital Statistics.
We are asked to provide a copy of the
marriage certificate and are told that
the "wedding" took place in
Boulder. We search the Boulder marriage
records and come up with nothing. We
should have searched the Denver records.
The solution to this..... give us as
much information as you can about the
marriage. If you know where the license
was issued, then tell us that!
Please Note: We
charge a fee for each LOCATION that we search. A search
request that comes back as "no record found" will not be
credited back UNLESS it is clearly our mistake that the
wrong location was searched. If we have made the error
then your money will be refunded cheerfully with our
apologies.
Below you will find the broad details of the
process by which a couple wishing to get
married are first issued a marriage
license, after meeting the state
requirements for the state where the
ceremony is to be held, and after the
nuptials have taken place, how a
marriage certificate is issued and filed
with the proper authorities.
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You must meet a
number of basic legal requirements in order to
apply for a license to get married. The
requirements vary slightly from state to state,
but are mostly limited to the following: both
parties must be at the age of consent (the
permission of both parents may be necessary if
an applicant is under 18 years old); the parties
cannot be closely related; both parties must be
of sound mind; both parties must be sober at the
time of the marriage; neither can be married to
anyone else; and a marriage license must be
obtained.
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 Typically,
couples obtain a marriage license, have the
wedding ceremony, and then have the person who
performed the ceremony file a marriage
certificate in the appropriate county office
within an appropriate time period. This may be the office of the
County Clerk, Recorder or Registrar of Vital
Statistics, depending on where you live. The
married couple will be sent a certified copy of
the marriage certificate within a few weeks
after the marriage ceremony. Most states require
both spouses, the person who officiated and one
or two witnesses to sign the marriage
certificate; often this is done just after the
ceremony.
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You apply for a marriage license at any County
Clerk's office in the state where you want to be
married. In some circumstances, you must apply in
the county or town where you intend to be
married - this depends on state law. You'll
probably have to pay a fee for your license, and
you may also have to wait a few days before it
is issued. In most states you need a photo ID
and in some cases a birth certificate may be
requested for proof of age and parentage. If one
or both applicants are divorced, you should
bring a copy of the final decree or decrees for
examination or a statement by the judge as to
when the final decree was signed. In some
states, even after you get your license you'll
have to wait a short period of time before the
marriage, but if you wait too long, your license
will expire. Licenses are good for 30 days to up
to one year, depending on the state. If your
license expires before you get married, you can
apply for a new one.
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Some states
require blood tests for couples
planning to marry. These tests are to find out
whether either partner has a STD or rubella. The
tests may also disclose the presence of genetic
disorders. In some states, you will have to sign
an affidavit that you don't have or have
disclosed to the other that you do have a STD.
To see a summary of the requirements for each
state, click here.
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 Civil or
non-religious ceremonies must be performed by a
judge, justice of the peace or Court Clerk who
has legal authority to perform marriages, or by
a person given temporary authority by a judge or
Court Clerk to conduct a marriage ceremony. This
can be a judge of a Federal District Court, a
U.S. magistrate, a judge of a Municipal Court, a
judge of the Superior Court, a judge of a Tax
Court, a retired judge who has resigned in good
standing, a mayor, or a deputy mayor. Religious
ceremonies must be conducted by a clergy member
(every minister of every religion). In most
states, a couple wishing to have both religious
and civil ceremonies may be issued a license for
both ceremonies on the basis of a single
application. It is customary to have witnesses
to the marriage, although they are not required
in all states.
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Once
the ceremony has been performed, and the
marriage license signed by the bride,
groom, the person officiating and the
witnesses. Then the marriage license is
filed with the issuing authority (office of the
County Clerk, Recorder or Registrar of Vital
Statistics), and a Marriage Certificate
is issued. This Marriage Certificate is
the PROOF that the ceremony took place,
and that the couple are formally and
legally married in the eyes of the law.
Note:
MARRIAGESEARCHUSA is not affiliated with any
third-party organization. The information
provided here should not be construed as legal
advice. It is kept reasonably current, but only
the state record offices have the very latest
information. The information presented below
should be used only as a rough guideline.
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