How to use marriage certificates for family history

In this guide, we’ll explain how to use marriage certificates for genealogy, what information they contain, and where to find them for England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to break down a brick wall, understanding how to make the most of marriage records is a key step in successful family history research.

By obtaining certificates from the General Register Office for the country in which a marriage took place, you’ll obtain important details about your ancestors and can take your family tree back another generation by discovering these further facts, as we show you here, with our exploration of marriage certificates.

 

The start of civil registration of marriages in the British Isles

The official civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales began on 1 July 1837 (1 January 1855 for Scotland and 1 January 1864 for Ireland - and non-Roman Catholic marriages in Ireland had been recorded since 1845). It is from these dates onwards that you may obtain marriage certificates for your ancestors. Such marriage certificates are actually copies of the state marriage register entries.

Here we'll be focusing on marriage certificates, but you can read the following articles to get more information on BMDs:

• Read more about birth certificates
• Read more about death certificates

Using church registers of marriage for family history

Before the introduction of the civil records, similar sorts of records had been kept by the church (these are known as parish registers, and largely cover baptisms, marriages and burials).

Search indexes of parish registers of marriage (and baptisms and burials too) free online at FreeReg - this site is a work-in-progress, with records continually being added. So far index details for 9 million marriages are available. See also family history societies for parish marriage indexes, Online Parish Clerks, local archives - search online to see what's available for your counties of interest.

However, there were increasingly concerns about the nature of this church record-keeping system. So it is in the Victorian era we see the state taking over the role of official registration of the births, marriages and deaths of the population.

The beginning of civil registration meant that the information collected about births, marriages and deaths was standardised and centralised, giving us, as family historians today, a much better chance of discovering information about our ancestors. Read on to discover what information you can find out from these marriage records.

---

An introduction to marriage indexes & marriage certificates 

The marriage indexes can tell you the following about your ancestor: 

• First name and surname of the bride and groom 

• Year the marriage was registered 

• Quarter the marriage was registered (March, June, September or December) 

• Name of the registration district 

• Volume and page number 

Search marriage indexes at the following locations:

FreeBMD for England and Wales

ScotlandsPeople for Scotland

IrishGenealogy for all Ireland up until 1922; for the ROI up until 75 years ago

GRONI for Northern Ireland

These details are all very useful for helping to pinpoint your ancestors’ marriage so that you can order the marriage certificate. A marriage certificate is well worth the expenditure... 

A marriage certificate gives much fuller information than the index entry: 

• First name and surname of the bride and groom 
• Precise date of the marriage 
• Precise location of the marriage 
• Occupation of the (possibly for the bride) bride and groom 
• Residence of the bride and groom 
• The marital status of the bride and groom (for example, bachelor/spinster or widower/widow) 
• Name and occupation for the fathers of the bride and groom 
• For marriages in Scotland the names of mothers too (mothers' names were only included for marriages in England and Wales from 2022). 
• The names of witnesses, who were often family members or friends. 

Marriage date tip: When searching for a marriage certificate, remember that not all marriages took place before the birth of a child. Indeed some marriages took place many years later, sometimes after the birth of several children. 

Marriage search tip: if you’re finding it difficult to locate the marriage of an ancestor, it’s really worth ensuring that your search is methodical. Keep good notes of where you search, and the search terms you use. It may be that you do not find an ancestors’ marriage record, even if they have recorded in other records, such as the census, that they were married. 

Marriage search saver tip: keep an eye out for digitised parish register entries for marriages. Since the introduction of civil registration the parish registers can contain the same information as that provided on a marriage certificate. 

Look local tip! In this guide we largely concentrate on the national collections of civil marriage records kept by the state - the ones that were sent to the General Register Offices of England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and subsequently Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However copies of the registers were also kept by the local register offices. If you are failing to find the General Register Office entry for your ancestor, it is worth looking locally, applying to the local register office. Try UKBMD for some online local register office indexes.

---

Your quick video guide to marriage certificates

Helen from Family Tree gives us a 60-second introduction to using marriage records for family history…

Helen says:

"Here we have a typical marriage certificate from the Victorian era. It gives us the names of the bride and groom, and sometimes their ages. If it says 'of full age,' that means they were over 21; sometimes you get the precise ages – for example, 24 and 25. We can also see their marital status, such as bachelor or spinster, which confirms they hadn’t been married before.

"The certificate also records occupations – here we can see the groom’s job, which helps us build a picture of who these people were. But the document gets even more interesting because it also tells us about the generation above. With just this one record, we can learn about the fathers of both the bride and the groom, along with their occupations. That’s two generations of family history from a single certificate.

"And lastly, never forget the witnesses. They are often relatives, and their names can provide valuable extra clues for your research."

---

Marriage certificates for England & Wales

The cheapest website to buy a copy of an English or Welsh marriage from is the official government website. 

The main body of the certificate as it was introduced in 1837 in England and Wales has remained unchanged to this day. It is identical in content wherever the marriage took place; exactly the same forms are used by the C of E, Protestant Nonconformists, Roman Catholics, Jews and Quakers and indeed by the local registration service for civil ceremonies.

The wording at the top and towards the bottom of the certificate varies slightly depending on the denomination and tells you where, how and by whom the marriage ceremony was performed. 

The information on an English or Welsh marriage certificate includes:

• When married
• Name and surname of bride and groom
• Age
• Condition (marital status)
• Rank or profession
• Residence at the time of marriage
• Fathers’ names
• Rank or profession of fathers
• Names of witnesses

Since 2022, the names of the mothers of the bride and groom have begun to be recorded too.

---

Marriage certificates for Scotland

Registration of marriages in Scotland began on 1 January 1855 and, as with the associated records of births and deaths, the amount of information recorded is far greater than in England and Wales. In that golden first year of registration, the birthplaces of the bride and groom were recorded as well as the number of former marriages and the number of children from those marriages.

These details were dropped from 1856 but the registers still continued to record the names of both parents, including the maiden names of the mothers. Visit ScotlandsPeople website for more information.

Marriage certificates for Ireland

Registration of all non-Roman Catholic marriages commenced on 1 April 1845 but all other marriages weren’t recorded by the state until 1 January 1864, when the full general registration system came into force.

For the Republic of Ireland order certificates here and for Northern Ireland click here.

For all of Ireland up until 1922, see the freely available digitised civil (and parish) marriage records at IrishGenealogy.ie - on this website you will also find marriages for the Republic of Ireland up until 75 years ago. (Marriage records within the past 75 years are not readily available online for privacy reasons).

---

Podcast: thinking about marriage records…

Family Tree Talk podcast co-hosts Nathan Ward and Helen Tovey discuss marriage records.

Thinking about the go-to places in which to look for marriage records. Reminding themselves to make sure they’ve gleaned every last clue from these precious papers. Check that they’ve tracked down the family wedding photos. And perhaps even taken a peep at the historic Met Office report for the day – to see whether their ancestors wed in sunshine, showers, or perhaps, even a romantic dusting of snow…

---

Claim your free BMD guide