Get Immediate Access to Public Marriage Records

Published on June 15th, 2011
Written by Public Record Finder Staff

Looking for a public marriage record? Maybe you are researching your family genealogy, or perhaps you are checking if your prospective partner is telling the truth about whether he or she was married in the past. Regardless of your reason, the availability of marriage records is widespread, and the general public has easy access to them.

Because marriage records are essentially a form of public records, anyone can access them. Since the Freedom of Information Act in 1966, marriage records, along with birth, divorce and death records, have been made available to the public via several resources. Government agencies hold marriage records, and this information can be requested by mail, phone or online from your specific state agency. You can also request the records in person.

Some of the information you can learn from accessing public marriage records are the date of marriage, divorce records, names, ages, relatives of the couple and address history. This information can be invaluable if you are performing a genealogy search. Also, if you are planning on marrying someone and you find out this person is already married, this information can save you years of heartache.

Though marriage records are available at your local government offices, accessing them on the internet is much easier. Accessing public records online has become increasingly popular, mostly because of the time saved from contacting and waiting for government agencies to fulfill your requests. Specialized websites have access to all types of public records and you can retrieve them instantly for a nominal fee.