Source Information

Ancestry.com. Vermont, U.S., Marriage Index, 1981-1984, 1989-2001 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
Original data: Vermont Vital Records Office. Vermont Marriages, 1981-84 and Vermont Marriages, 1989-2001. Burlington, VT, USA: Vermont Vital Records Office.

About Vermont, U.S., Marriage Index, 1981-1984, 1989-2001

This database contains an index, created by the Vermont Vital Records Office, to approximately 200,000 marriages occurring in the state of Vermont from 1981-1984 and 1989-2001. For all years, the following information is available:

  • Marriage date
  • Groom's name
  • Bride's name

For records from the years 1989-2001, the following information is also included:

  • Town of marriage
  • Bride's and Groom's states of birth
  • Bride's and Groom's ages at time of marriage

Locating Originals

Vital records after 1982 are found at the Vital Records Office, 108 Cherry Street, P.O. Box 70, Burlington, Vermont, 05841. Files are open to the public but accessed by a clerk. The cost, either in person or by mail, is presently $5 per event.

Taken from Bartley, Scott A. and Alice Eichholz, "Vermont," in Ancestry's Red Book, ed. Alice Eichholz. (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1992).

About Marriage Records

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 Johni Cerny 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).