Church Records: Marriages
Baptisms | Marriages | Investigations | Burials |
Introduction
The process of marrying in Hispanic societies potentially generated several different records:
- Pre-marriage investigation (información, diligencia, or expediente matrimonial)
- Parish marriage register entry (partida de matrimonio)
- Marriage dispensation (dispensa matrimonial)
- Church and civil court records relating to marital relations
- Dowry inventories and pre-nuptial/post-nuptial contracts
The first two record types on the above list relate to the marriage performed by the parish priest. The third one refers to the application by a future bride and groom to the bishop and subsequent investigation to waive an impediment to the proposed marriage. The fourth category generally refers to broken promises to marry—lawsuits and prosecutions relating to marital conflicts and annulments found in the diocesan and civil courts. The last items are contracts defining property contributions to and ultimate property distributions from the marriage, often not only involving the bride and groom but their respective parents as well.
Libros de Matrimonios or Marriage Entries
Marriage records may include the following information, depending on the time period when they were created:
- Date of the marriage
- Given name and surname of the bride and groom
- Marital status of the bride and groom
- Age of the bride and groom
- The profession of the bride and groom
- Given names, surnames, residences, and birthplaces of the parents
- Note regarding the reading of the banns
- Note as to impediments dispensed with
- Names of witnesses
- Name or signature of the officiating priest
The information included in these records usually follows a specific order; however, it is not uncommon to find the same information in a different order. For this reason, it is important to familiarize oneself with the format of the document being worked on.
For examples of marriage records see the document gallery.
Description: Detail of folio 60r from the Codex Mendoza. Lower half of page. Fifteen-year-old girls face their future. The fifteen-year-old girl undergoes her wedding ceremonies. At the bottom, a torch-lit procession accompanies the bride to the groom’s house on the first night; she is carried on the back of the female matchmaker. Inside, a feast is laid out: a basket of tamales, a tripod bowl of turkey-meat, and a pitcher and bowl of pulque (fermented juice of the maguey plant). Four aged wedding guests are shown talking. The bride and her older groom, their garments tied together, sit in front of a hearth and a bowl of incense, on the mat on which they will eventually sleep.Wedding ceremony. Below, the bride is carried by night to the house of the bridegroom. Above, the bridal couple sit on a mat with their clothes knotted together. Two old men (left) and two old women (right) are present as witnesses. Shelfmark: MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1
Image & descrption: Selden Roll, 16th century, painted manuscript, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 72(3), frame 11, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org : accessed 30 July 2026) This image licensed by CC BY 4.0 International license. The image and was adjusted for size, clarity, and color.