CA Marriage License Records

CA Marriage License Records

By Claire Dowell


Marriage licenses which dated from 1850 can be retrieved from the California Marriage Records. The licenses were kept and organized according to name, counties and date. The County Recorder, which is the California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records, keeps the data and can be accessed by the public upon special request. Although, the California Public Records Act has made the information available to the public, some of the public marriage licenses are not indexed. Only the public marriage licenses which were indexed on 1949-1986 and 1998-1999 can be accessed.

Marriage licenses can be retrieved at any county office in California. The most common reason these files are accessed or requested are for general research, checking family background and legal or undertaking reasons.

Requesting for a certified marriage license one would need to pay the standard fee of $14.00 to the Office of Vital Records. However, special request such are printing hardcopies or burning the information on to a CD or DVD would need an additional charge for the specialized computer application installed, supplies used, time consumed and labor of the employee.

In order to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate, you need to fill out the marriage certificate application form. You need to have the statement notarized and signed under the penalty of perjury. On July 1, 2003, a bill was passed which requires a copy of your birth certificate when you request for your marriage certificate. Basic marriage information will also be needed such as the couple's name and date of marriage. You need to fulfill all of these requirements otherwise your request will be rejected by the Office of Vital Records and your incomplete request will be returned for completion. When it comes to mail requests, you only need to send a notarized application form for the office to process your request.

California has made the marriage records request much easier to the public as it can be released via email. It can also be retrieved through third party companies where they can hasten the process for an additional fee. The use of a third-party company to access the data for you is best if the one who request for it is located in a different state. Getting the record on your own may be easy and hassle-free but it may take time since the Office of the Vital Records may have other accumulated requests from several months.

With more public information available online, searching for California Marriage Records online especially on marriage records is now becoming commonplace the fact that it is fast and that the internet is ubiquitous. With online searching for public information, you can easily find and request for your marriage certificate without the need to fall in queue or pay a lot of money to expedite your request.




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