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There are many places to find marriage records online, but you'll sometimes discover your ancestor's nuptials records on websites you haven't considered. Discover how to access these little-used websites to see if you can find out when and if your ancestors stood before the altar.
Start With a Genealogy Portal Page
Millions of marriage records are available online in the United States and the world. My favorite place to discover what is available online is the FamilySearch Wiki. Here are two pages that US researchers benefit from:
If you do a Google Search for FamilySearch + marriage + country, you will find relevant wiki pages across the globe.
Another website worth trying is Ancestor Hunt, a passion project of Kenneth R Marks of Sun City, Arizona. He aggregates links for the US, which you'll access here.
4 Lesser-Known Websites to Search for Marriage Records
From here, you will discover lesser-known websites that databases with your ancestor's marriage records. Here's a sampling of pages:
Library Indexes
Collections such as the Billings Gazette Vitals, Indexes, and Archive resources as part of the Billings Public Library are a wonderful gateway to the town's newspapers.
Notice in the file called Vital Statistics Index J - L (PDF) is a table with a person's name, the date they appear in the newspaper, what type of article they appear in it, and the name of the paper. You can then build a list of articles you want to find in the various articles using Chronicling America or the Digital Archives of the Billings Public Library.
Check out the libraries that serve in the area your ancestor lived. You might be surprised by what they have to offer.
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Volunteer Genealogist Projects
Websites like US GenWeb and Genealogy Trails have numerous submissions from volunteers. For instance, you can find the list of marriages in the First United Presbyterian Church in Fergus County, Montana, between the years 1890-1912.
If money is tight and you need to take your genealogy research one step further, check out these websites.
To see a demonstration of these resources, watch this video.
State Archives Digital Resources
Many state archives have indexed marriage records in their collections. These indexes help staff access the documents we most want to find. Seek out the state archive pages for the places your ancestors lived (and neighboring states). Perhaps you can find indexes such as the one for Oregon or Colorado.
Once you find your ancestor in the index, you can contact the Archives to order a copy of the marriage record.
If these resources do not work, get the assistance of a genealogist knowledgeable in the area your ancestor lived in by hiring our friends at Legacy Tree Genealogists.
Special Collections
Many universities have special collections, and often they make their searchable databases available to the public. One such collection is the Western States Marriage Record Index managed by BYU - Idaho. While this database is ever-expanding, I've found entries from county records, LDS Church resources, and newspapers.
