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Illinois, 1851-1900 Marriage Index
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About the Data
This data set contains alphabetical
listings of approximately 707,000 individuals who were married in Illinois between
1851 and 1900.
While marriage records can usually be found in county courthouses, copies are
often located in the state archives, libraries, or historical societies. The specific
office in a county courthouse where marriage records may be kept varies from county
clerk to probate clerk. Actual records are kept in a variety of forms, primarily
as marriage bonds or marriage licenses. These records usually indicate where a
bride and groom were wed and details of the ceremony.
Until 1922, fewer than 90 percent of Illinois vital statistics were recorded.
Marriage records were the first vital records kept by Illinois counties. Since
1962, indexed marriage and divorce records have been kept by the division of vital
records of the Illinois Department of Health. While this office will verify information,
you must request copies of marriage records from the county in which the marriage
took place. Through a joint effort of the Illinois State Genealogical Society
and the Illinois State Archives, a compilation of pre-1900 marriage records are
available on microfiche.
This data set is a great resource because it brings together previously uncollected
marriage records. For each listed individual, you can obtain information such
as the individual's name, his or her spouse's name, the marriage date, and the
county where the marriage was recorded. You can also learn where to find copies
of your ancestors' original marriage record so that you can discover even more
detailed family history information. Additional information about this data can
be found in the section of this introduction titled "More About This Data
Set."
Information for this data set and the remaining part of this introduction was
provided by Liahona Research. The purpose of this work is to serve as a research
tool and to provide a time and place of a particular marriage event. It is important
that you, as a researcher, go to the original record (usually on microfilm) and
glean whatever genealogical information you desire. The record may provide additional
information such as parents' names, ages, dates of birth, residences, or previous
marriages. While these facts may not always be provided on the original record,
in some counties and circumstances they are a standard.
Generally, the date provided for each entry is a couple's marriage date. However,
when no marriage date was given, the date of the license was substituted. Occasionally,
a marriage may be listed twice but in two different counties. In such cases, a
couple would obtain a marriage license in one county but would be married in another
county, most often near other relatives. Liahona Research left these marriages
listed twice in order to provide the researcher
with clues about the existence of family in other counties.
Liahona Research has made great effort to retain all spellings as they appeared
in the original texts and to find all available records in existence. Regardless
of the effort spent in collecting these records, Liahona Research understands
that some records may have been overlooked, misspelled, or not available to the
general public. Liahona Research welcomes the submission of any additions, corrections,
or information that may be of benefit to researchers in future
publications.
Liahona Research
P.O. Box 740
Orem, Utah 84059-0740
Data included in this data set was collected through the efforts of Jordan
Dodd at Liahona Research.
More
About This Data Set
While great
effort has been taken to eliminate duplicate records from this data, some records
are entered twice. This is because of differences in knowledge of the recorder,
variations in spelling of names, and the filing of marriage intentions in more
than one location.
The information included on this data set is described in more detail below.
Name — In some records, you will find three question marks in place
of the given name or surname. This indicates that the name was not listed on the
original record. You may also find question marks in place of missing letters.
A question mark after a name indicates that the name spelling was unclear. You
may also occasionally find the same record listed in the index under two different
name spellings. Please note that not all unusual and uncertain names were noted
by question marks, so always be sure to check under various spellings if you are
having trouble locating a name.
Spouse — This field lists the name of the individual's spouse. Please
note that all records appear in the index twice, once under the husband's name
and once under the wife's name. Since both names are indexed, you will be able
to locate an ancestor's marriage even if you only know one of the spouse's names.
Marriage date — As noted in the previous section of this introduction,
this date is usually the marriage date. When no marriage date was available in
the records, the date of the license
application or the date that the license was issued was substituted.
County — This is the county in which the marriage was recorded. In
most cases, this is also the county in which the marriage took place.
Location of records — This tells you where you can find a copy of
the original record. The original record may provide you with more complete information,
such as the name of the couple's parents, the couple's ages, and where they lived
at the time of their marriage.
Soundex code — The Soundex code for each individual's surname appears
on the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
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