State Of Illinois Marriage Records Search Online

December 31, 2009

An ongoing project by The Illinois State Archives in collaboration with the Illinois State Genealogical Society compiles all Illinois marriages records that occurred prior to 1901. It currently has in excess of a million pre-1901 data on file, dating as far back as 1763. This information is open for viewing and any member of the public can access or even contribute to them.

This public service is meant to be easily available to users in general and that has been greatly boosted with the advent of the Internet. People can now obtain free marriage records information online without having to leave home or office, saving a great deal of time and costs in travelling and waiting in line. They only have to get onto a computer and log on to the Internet.

The County Clerks are the ones responsible for this type of information which they obtain from the original marriage records that entails marriage registers, certificated, licenses and other useful information. The County Genealogical societies also contribute in this way along with private citizens where they upload such documents voluntarily on the internet.

The names of the couples, the date and county in which the marriage occurred, the official of the ceremony as well as marriage license particulars are included in public marriage records from Illinois. If the bride or groom had been married before, those marriage records will also show up within the searches as long as they occurred in Illinois and within the marriage index.

The Illinois State-wide Marriage Index has a listing of all public marriages within Illinois. The Illinois Regional Archives Depository System (IRAD) keeps the entire original as well as microfilm copies of such documents. Even uncertified copies of marriages are kept by the IRAD from 70 counties of the 102 in Illinois; which are not requested by the County Clerks. In addition, these offices are the only authoritative sources of the certified copies of marriage records.

Illinois marriages records are public records. As such, they are freely available from commercial information providers. The top tier of such private data-houses is highly professional. On top of public sources, they also have access to proprietary databases and networks. Competition is intense so only bona-fide can hold their own. This makes for good value for money. It’s no wonder why this form of information search is gaining popularity.

If you’re not making headway with Marriage License Records, try checking out Free Marriage Records archives.