Source Information

Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Marriage Indexes, 1822-1875 and 1927-2001 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
Original data:
  • Florida Department of Health. Florida Marriage Index, 1927-2001. Florida Department of Health, Jacksonville, Florida.
  • Marriages records from various counties located in county courthouses and/or on microfilm at the Family History Library.

About Florida, U.S., Marriage Indexes, 1822-1875 and 1927-2001

This database is a collection of about 11.7 million individuals who were married in the state of Florida between 1822-1875 and 1927-2001. The index was created by multiple agencies - Ancestry, the Florida Department of Health, and Jordan Dodd of Liahona Research. The following list is a breakdown of the records included in this database and who created the electronic index to each of them.

Indexed by Ancestry (includes images of the records):

  • Florida State Marriage Index, 1927-1969

Indexed by Florida Department of Health (no images available):

  • Florida State Marriage Index, 1970-2001

Indexed by Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research (no images available):

  • Marriages for various counties, 1822-1875 (compiled from various records at county courthouses and/or on microfilm)

Information that may be found in this database includes:

  • Name of bride and/or groom
  • Marriage county*
  • Marriage date (can be just a year, or a month and year, etc.)
  • Marriage certificate number (only available for data from the Department of Health)
  • Volume number (only available for data from the Department of Health)

*In a few cases, a marriage will be listed twice, but in two different counties. This most often happened when a couple obtained a license in one county, but were actually married in another county. To provide additional research clues, this collection includes both entries.

Where to Go From Here:

Marriage records are great sources for genealogists because they document an individual in a particular place and time as well as provide details about that person's marriage.

It is important that you use the information found in this database to locate your ancestor in the original records that this index references. Usually more information is available in the records themselves than is found in an index. For example, marriage records sometimes provide the birth dates and places of the bride and groom, their parents' names, their addresses, and witnesses' names, in addition to the information listed in this index.

Copies of marriage records are available through the Florida Department of Health. They maintain marriage records beginning in January 1927. For information about how to obtain a copy, please visit their website: www.floridahealth.gov/certificates/certificates/marriage/index.html. Records of marriages occurring before 1927 must be obtained from the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the marriage license was issued.

Many of these marriages may also be available on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. These microfilms can be loaned out to thousands of local Family History Centers throughout the world.

About Marriage Records in General:

Marriage licenses are the most common marriage records in the United States. They are issued by the appropriate authority prior to the marriage ceremony, and they have come to replace the posting of banns and intentions. Marriage licenses, which grant permission for a marriage to be performed, are returned to civil authorities after the ceremony.

Marriage licenses exist in varying forms. A standard form generally asks for the names of the bride and groom, their residence at the time of application, the date the marriage was performed, the date the license was issued, the place of the marriage, and the name of the person performing the marriage ceremony.

Marriage certificates are given to the couple after the ceremony is completed and are thus usually found among family records. There are exceptions, however. [Some] certificates…are similar to marriage licenses issued in other places. The bride and groom usually receive a marriage certificate for their family records containing similar historical information, signatures of witnesses, etc.

Taken from Cerny, Johni and Sandra H. Luebking, "Research in Marriage and Divorce Records." In The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997).