Marriage Records

Marriage Record Context

Marriage records are arguably the most important vital records to find and utilize; not only do they link two families, but they may provide information to verify birth records, parents or previous marriages. Most church records before the 19th century were written in a paragraph of sentence format, however it is not unusual to find these records up until the early 1900's. These types of records may have more information than a table-format record, but they also tend to be harder to read. To better understand the language found on these records, the BYU German Script Tutorial also provides a list of common vocabulary found on marriage records.

Marriage Record Content

Marriage records will have:

A marriage date or banns declaration date
The name of the groom
The name of the bride (or that of her deceased husband, in such a case that one exists)

Additionally, it is common to find:

The occupation of the groom
The social status of the groom
The residence of the Groom
The birth date of the Groom
The name of the groom's father*
The name of the groom's mother
The birth date of the bride
The birth place of the bride
The name of the bride's father (or that of a late husband)
The occupation of the bride's father (or that of a late husband)
The social status of the bride's father (or that of a late husband)

*If the groom’s father is not named, it could suggest that the groom was born out of wedlock. However, this isn’t always the case—sometimes the omission occurs because the groom was previously married, and men are not always explicitly marked as widowers. To better understand the record, check nearby entries to see how the scribe typically recorded a man’s marital status. If other grooms are labeled as widowers ("Witwer") but your entry is not, this might indicate illegitimacy—or simply inconsistent recordkeeping. The same logic applies if the bride’s father is not listed. Also, keep in mind that some records omit parents’ names if the marriage was recorded in more than one parish. In these cases, look for clues in the entry such as “von” or “aus” (both meaning “from”), which may indicate that the record is a duplicate from another location.

Marriage Record Examples

Click on any image to go to its transcription and translation page.

Example of a typical Paragraph Format:

This example includes birthdates for both individuals in the remarks.

Example of a Sentence Format:

Example of a typical Tabular Format:

After the 1800's most church records were usually kept in a tabular or printed format. Tabular forms are easier to read, but usually have less information.

Image: Franz Niklaus König, Bräuche, Hochzeit, Trauung, 1803, Painting, Digital Image, Wikimedia Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org : accessed 24 June 2024). This image is in the public domain.