Oregon, County Marriages, 1851-1975

What is in This Collection?

The collection consists of an index & images of marriage records from counties in Oregon. These records include licenses and marriage certificates and are arranged by county, volume, and date. The dates covered by this collection are 1851 to 1975. Additional records will be added as they are completed.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Date and place of marriage Names of the groom and bride County in which they reside Names of witnesses Name and title of officiator

Names of the parents or guardians of the bride and groom Witnesses Birthplaces of the bride and groom Age of the bride and groom Marital status of the bride and groom

Collection Content

The type of form used varies between register style and certificate style. County clerks usually used the same printed form during the same time periods. Marriage records were generally well preserved, although disasters may have destroyed some records.

The earliest marriage bonds and licenses were usually handwritten on loose papers that were later bound into lettered volumes. Some marriage records had multiple entries on each page, while others had single records per page.

Marriages were recorded by the clerk of the district court for each county from the time the county was formed. Persons desiring to marry obtained a license that they presented to the minister or other person authorized to marry, such as a justice of the peace. Once the marriage was performed, the officiator sent a return to the clerk confirming that the marriage had occurred.

Civil marriage records were created to legalize marital relationships and to protect the interests of the wife and other heirs to legal claims on property.

The marriage date, place, residence of the bride and groom, and occupations are relatively reliable. Other information, such as age or birthplace, is dependent on the knowledge, memory, and accuracy of the informants, usually the bride and groom.

Sample Images

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  1914 Marriage

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  1951 Marriage

Coverage Table

As of 26 November 2019 records from the following counties were included in this collection:

Baker Benton Clatsop Columbia

Douglas Morrow Polk Yamhill

Digital Folder Number List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at Oregon, County Marriages Digital Folder Number List.