Georgia, County Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Georgia 

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of an index and images of marriages recorded in Georgia counties for the years 1785 to 1950. Due to privacy laws, recent records may not be displayed. The year range represents most of the records, although a few counties may have records from earlier or later.

Marriages were recorded by the clerk of the district court for each county from the time the county was formed. Persons desiring to marry obtained a license that they presented to the minister or other person authorized to marry, such as a justice of the peace. Once the marriage was performed, the officiator sent a return to the clerk confirming that the marriage had occurred. Civil marriage records were created to legalize marital relationships and to protect the interests of the wife and other heirs to legal claims on property. The records are arranged by county, then by volume and year range. Marriage records were generally well preserved, although fires, floods, or other disasters may have destroyed some. The earliest records were usually handwritten on loose papers and later bound into lettered volumes. Some marriage records had multiple entries on each page while others had single records per page.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
Marriage records usually include the following:


 * Name of the groom
 * Name of the bride, often including the maiden name of the bride
 * Names of the officiator and witnesses
 * Marriage date
 * Marriage place

Later marriage records also include:


 * Names of the parents or guardians of the bride and groom
 * Birthplaces of the bride and groom
 * Residences of the bride and groom
 * Age and races of the bride and groom
 * Marital status of the bride and groom

Coverage Map
To see a coverage map of FamilySearch's holdings of Georgia marriages, click here.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. These images can be viewed online by members of the supporting organization(s), at a Family History Center near you, or the Family History Library.

For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

How Do I Search the Collection?

 * 1) Fill in the search boxes on the Collection Page with the information you know. This will provide possible a list of matches. Compare the information in the lists to what you already know to determine if you found the correct person.
 * 2) Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page

To Browse Images of the Records

 * 1) Check the indexes at the beginning or end. If your ancestor is in the index write down the page numbers listed for your ancestor so that you can then quickly turn to those pages.
 * 2) Go to the collection browse page.
 * 3) Select the County name
 * 4) Select the Record Type, Year Range, and Volumes or License Numbers
 * 5) Compare the information on the image to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person.

For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members. Witnesses or bondsmen were usually relatives.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?
rowsing through images.
 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or b
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Georgia, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the [Georgia Archives and Libraries]].

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection, see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

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