California Free Marriage Records

By Ben Kingsley


A marriage needs to be documented so that there is official. In California, the State Health Department is tasked to store California Marriage Records. The documents can also be used for genealogical searches and tracing the original family name of a woman. The Health Department only grants marriage certificates. Certified copies of marriage documents can only be acquired at the exact Clerk of Court that made the marriage official.

Any member of the public has the right marriage records because they are part of what are considered as public records. However, the full details the records are only given to the husband, the wife, their legal representatives, and other people that are specified by the court. If outside parties want to access the records, they need the consent of the couple to do so. They will be provided with marriage certificates which are only good as a source of information and not as a legal document to support any legal matters.

Marriage certificates include the basic details of a marriage such as the names of the couple, place and date of birth, the location of the marriage, etc. Confidential details are not made available to the public to preserve the couple's right to privacy.

Government offices that are tasked of keeping public files have their respective websites. In their database are copies of public files in encoded form. Since the files are in a database, it is easier to find out if a requested file is available or not. Despite having their own websites, it still takes quite some time to retrieve the files, mainly because government offices employ only a handful of people. Fortunately, there online service providers that also keep marriage files. Such online service providers are permitted by the court to provide the files to the public upon request. The files that online service providers keep are the same as what government offices keep.

Online service providers are either for free or they impose certain fees. Both types are capable of supplying the basic details of a marriage files except those that impose certain fees provide more information each time as long as they are available. There is also an option for you to become a member by paying a one-time membership fee. Once a member, you can do as many searches as you wish. If you are searching for only one file and maybe a few more, you may just pay for every file that you search and not register as a member anymore.

A complete marriage file should always include a license. A marriage will not be official unless there is a Marriage License. A license can be obtained at a county Clerk of Court. Once a license is released, it will only be valid for a period of 90 days. After 90 days, the license becomes invalid and the bride and groom needs to obtain another one before they can proceed with their wedding. If the bride or groom has been married before, a divorce record is needed in getting a license.




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