Sunday, February 24, 2013

California County Marriages, 1850-1952


 219,279 results for > Event: Marriage, Place: San Joaquin County

 
Looking for marriage licenses for San Joaquin County or any other county in California?  You are in luck.  
 
FAMILYSEARCH.ORG now includes INDEXED marriage  records for California counties.  Though the database claims to cover 1850 to 1952, the actual coverage will vary for each county.
 
The nicest thing about these records is that they are FREE.  San Joaquin County records cover 1851 through 1951 with a handful of records for 1952 and include IMAGES of the actual records.  These are the original marriage licenses, not the reprinted information that is sold to you for $14.00 if you go to the Clerk/Recorder's office today.
 
Not all counties are as complete as San Joaquin County.  There is indexing for San Francisco marriages in and before the 1906 fire, but there are no images. 
 
To test out the holdings for a particular county, type the county name in the MARRIAGE PLACE field and hit enter.  You will see how many records are available for that county.  To check the range of years available for a county, besides entering the county name, enter a single year like 1850 or 1952 in the two year fields.  You will see if there are any records for that year.  If checking year-by-year is going too slowly, try a small range of years like 1850 to 1860 to test the holdings.
 
I did find that the indexing is not always accurate, so try less information if your first search is unsuccessful.  Conrad Henry August Weber was listed under Henry Weber even though his name was clearly printed on the marriage license.  Entering just Weber and a spouse's surname of Delaney found the record.
 
Follow the link below to try out this new index and database:
 

 
The first marriage recorded in San Joaquin County:
 
 


 

 
J.U. Clowdsley was a renowned Stockton architect and the son of the San Joaquin County library director.  His marriage license shows the format on the most recent docuements: