Using an Online Agency
Visit a specialist website. The quickest and easiest way to find out when somebody was married is to visit a website of a company that can search through marriage records for you. There are a number of these online agencies. You will find them by looking for “marriage record checks” or “background checks” in a search engine. Before employing any agency to find out information, be sure you do some research on the company. Look for one that has positive feedback and a good reputation.
See if there’s a free trial. Online agencies will charge you for their services, but in some instances you may be able to utilise a free trial period, or have one free trial search. If you only want to look up the records for one marriage, you may be able to take up an offer and do the search for free. Remember that results are not guaranteed, even if you pay. Using a free trial will give you an idea of the service you can expect. Some of these databases will not go right up to the present day. Make sure you know they cover the approximate year you think the wedding occurred in before proceeding.
Sign up for an online account. Few agencies will allow you to search without signing up for an account. You will need to provide your personal details and agree to a payment option. These agencies are often used by people such as private investigators, so membership is generally based on subscription. In some cases you will be able to pay on a pay-as-you-go basis. In the UK, a subscription could cost you £15 a year, or 3 months for £5. With deals like these, there will often be a limit to the number of searches you can perform.
Search through the online database. You may also be able to pay for a complete background check, through which you can learn other personal information in addition to the marriage date. To search for a marriage record online you will generally need the person’s full name, and the city and state the marriage was performed in. If possible, research the records that the database has before paying. Some sites will show you which years are available to be researched in that state.
Use a search engine. In some cases you may be able to bypass all of this just by typing someone’s name into a search engine. There may well be record of the wedding online that may include the place and date of the ceremony. This may only work with people who have a strong presence on social media, but it is certainly worth a try.
Searching County Court and Church Marriage Records
Check your state's marriage certificate index or repository. The records of marriages are held by your County, and the way the information is kept and made available can vary from place to place. If your state and county has online marriage indexes, you can search through this online database to find information on the marriage. Not all states have these indexes, but if they do, it may allow you to find the person's wedding day without going to an office.
Go to the county records office. If you haven’t been able to find the information you are looking for online, the next step is to visit the country records office or courthouse in person. To do this you will need to know where the marriage took place, so that you can go to the relevant office. Marriage licenses, which show the date of marriage, are given by the county clerk and a search can be conducted at the County Recorder's office. You need to go with as much information as you have about the marriage in question. This should include at least the names of the couple and the place of the marriage. If you know approximately when they were married, this could help narrow the search.
Request the marriage records. Once you are at the right place, you will be asked to fill out the paperwork required to request information on the marriage. You may be asked to pay between $10 and $50 to perform a search. You may be able to conduct the search online, through your county clerk website. You may or may not need to submit a credit card number to conduct the search online.
Look for church records. The US did not require civil registration of marriages until the twentieth century. If you are looking for information on an earlier marriage, it’s a good idea to try and check church records, which in some cases go back to the 1600s. To find the church records you will need to know where the person lived, as well as the denomination of the church they attended. Church records are generally kept in churches and their archives, at historical and genealogical societies, and in libraries. If the church doesn’t hold the archives, the headquarters of the denomination may do.
Looking in Newspapers and Local Announcements
Learn the location of the marriage. In some cases, marriages will be followed by an announcement in a local newspaper or newsletter. This is certainly becoming less common than it used to be, but if you are lucky, you may find a wedding announcement this way. Some obituaries also contain information on the person’s marriage. If possible, you should start by finding where the marriage that you are interested in took place. This will allow you to identify any newspapers that may have published the date.
Go to the local newspaper website. If you know where the person was married, you can try looking on the website of the local newspaper in that location. Do a search for the names in the announcements section or public records section. Some larger local or state newspapers may have an online archive service, but you may have to pay to use this. You can find further information on online newspaper archives on a state-by-state basis here: http://www.neh.gov/us-newspaper-program.
Go to your public library. Some local newspapers may not have very thorough online records, so in some cases you may be required to visit the local library to see archive copies of the paper for the period you are looking at. You may also be able to search for the records at the newspaper's headquarters. You can find archive copies of newspapers in good public libraries, and access should be free of charge in most cases.
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