To get at all the information you’re going to need for your ancestors, there are times when its going to be necessary to think outside the box with regard to where it came from.

Fortunately there are places where you can go to find some of the things that you might not find in the census or family records, such as the marriages of those who are further up the line than just parents or grandparents.
The Uk particularly provides for this in a number of ways.
There are national indexes that will help you to find all of the registered marriages in the United Kingdom.

Unfortunately this type of national data base is not yet in place in the United states, however most states keep records of all marriages that have taken place in that state, so if you have a state and an approximate date it’s likely that you can track it down.
If you don’t however, you’re going to have to do some additional creative thinking.

There is a database of marriages state by state which is located online at
http://www.familymarriagerecords.com/
Although each state differs in when it began to keep those marriage records, some begin as early as 1790, while others don’t begin for some states for another fifty or seventy five years.

In the case of wealthier families the marriage would be likely recorded by photographs in the early days of photography. In most instances the photographer would put a date and his name or mark on the photo that could provide some clues. There may also be writing on the photos.

Another method of finding what you want might be to study the time period as well as the area in which you believe your ancestors were married.

Take a while to actively study what the laws required for marriage at the time when you believe your ancestor was married.
It may be that you could also search for some type of consent form that would give you more information that you currently have. In many cases a consent to marry was required for the couple who was going to be wed, or at least for one of them.

Earlier times saw those consents written on little pieces of paper, and once in a while they will come to the surface, however later in some areas, particularly the midwestern states, a consent form was printed out and included many details. The father of the person who was underage of consent was required to sign. Failing that, the mother was, and if a legal guardian signed, you can safely assume that both parents were lost or dead at the time of the marriage.

In most areas the age of consent was fourteen for men and twelve for women, or girls, however most states didn’t see a lot of extremely young marriages. The laws in most states changed to raise that to seventeen for men and fourteen for woman in the later 18th century and they were raised once more in the 19th century.

Although the traditional age of consent for men was fourteen, and twelve for girls, very young marriages were never the custom. Many states enacted laws to raise the ages to seventeen for men and fourteen for women in the eighteenth century. Ages were raised again in the nineteenth century.

Not al states required them, but in some cases marriage bonds may be the only paperwork that were posted before the marriage license was issued.

These were used to help pay the costs of an annulment if the marriage were found later to be not legal. This was common in the southern states, and in some cases was even required.

In some instances you will find marriage agreements or prenuptial agreements or contracts, which laid out what each couple brought to the marriage and what remained theirs in the case of death or divorce. These are not always common but in many cases, even if they were not wealthy people, the French and Spanish in the US would adhere to their own customs and provide a contract prior to the marriage.

Each of these items will help you to find a marriage date, or a marriage certificate, by pointing out the dates, and where to look for the official marriage paperwork.

Tags:  tracing marriages tracking down marriage certificates