Marriage Record Search

Florida marriage records are very useful for many reasons. Not all states make it easy for you to obtain county marriage records, but Florida is a lenient state. The important thing to realize is that you should try to have an idea of the county where the marriage records could be.

Without knowing which part of the state the marriage was applied for in, it may be difficult to obtain Florida marriage records. It does not mean it is impossible though, and there are some other things you should know about Florida marriage records.

• Once a marriage ceremony is carried out, the marriage records are returned to the county clerk. If a marriage occurred less than 60 days ago, you may not be able to obtain a copy of the records yet. If you were looking for your own marriage records in order to provide proof of marriage, you may need to contact the court where the records were issued in the first place.

• Generally, for Florida marriage records you may have to look in different places for these depending on the date. For example, there were changes to marriage certificates around 1972, which means records prior to that may be kept separately. Also from 1927 to 1972, the records for marriage were kept in yet another location. You can obtain records for marriage and divorce prior to this, but it may take a little more research.

• Although you can find free marriage records, depending on how you order your records you may have to pay at least a small fee. This may be even more depending on how much work is required for locating your documentation.

What You Need for Florida Marriage Records

As with many types of records, especially vital records, there are different types of information you may need to track down your Florida marriage records. There can be ways to get around some of this for marriage records, but generally it will make it easier if you have the following:

• Full legal name of the husband
• Full legal name of the wife
• If you have only one or the other this may still work, but try to have both for better marriage records retrieval success
• the date of the marriage, although just the year may work
• the location of where the marriage license was issued, which could be the city or the county

When requesting Florida marriage records, you will also have to supply your name, address and a phone number should someone need to contact you. The good news is that marriage records for the state of Florida are available to the public so it should not be too great a challenge to find them.

If you cannot find the marriage records just be patient. There are ways to get around some problems and still be able to locate the Florida marriage records you require for whatever reason you need them.