Marriages that took place between 1763 and 1900 have been kept in records by the Illinois State Archives in collaboration with the Illinois State Genealogical Society. This was in effort to preserve the historical public marriage documents of Illinois residents. Over 1 million of such files can be found which due to the efforts of these two entities, are they accessible by the public.

Ideally, these marriage records are available on the internet. Dating back fro, before 1900, marriages that also took place after 1900 till now are also accessible as seen with the State-wide Marriage Index. Once they are in the Index, they can be found online which eradicates the long processing procedure at the walk-in offices such as the relevant government agencies.

Predominantly, the contents of these records are obtained directly from the Country Clerk’s original listings. Such contents include the license, certificate and marriage register. In addition, private organizations and county Genealogical societies also contribute publications in this regard. All in all, the index spoken of earlier is overseen by the Illinois State Archives.

The names of the couples, the date and county in which the marriage occurred, the official of the ceremony as well as marriage license particulars are included in public marriage records from Illinois. If the bride or groom had been married before, those marriage records will also show up within the searches as long as they occurred in Illinois and within the marriage index.

Cook County within Illinois was the first county to keep track of such records but much of it was lost in the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 that wrecked most of the Sam Fink Index. Notwithstanding this, some 70 of the 102 counties have their marriage records stored in the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD). Even though the most complete county records are the individual ones, they are disseminated. Furthermore, these county offices are the only sanctioned agencies to distribute such authoritative copies.

Commercial providers online are a good source for marriage records. They are highly professional with their record databases available to the wider public. They also tap into private and proprietary networks along with those from the Illinois State Archives, Genealogical societies and universities. It’s an easy and simplistic ways providing a nationwide service which is beneficial to those with time restrictions.

You don’t have to go all over the place to gather different Illinois Marriage Records one by one. Get these Public Marriage Records all at once plus more!