Minnesota, County Marriages, 1853-1983

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of an index & images of county marriage records for Minnesota. It covers the years 1860 to 1949.

Most of this collection consists of marriage licenses, applications, records, registers, and certificates. The records are arranged by county, then by volume and year range. The form type 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 fires, floods, or other 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.

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.

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
• Name and residence of groom
• Name and residence of bride
• Names of witnesses
• Name of person officiating at marriage

Collection Content

Sample Images

• 

  1892 Marriage License

• 

  1900 Marriage Application

Coverage Table

The table shows the number of records for each county in this collection as of 18 June 2016.

County	Records
Aitkin	0
Anoka	28,387
Becker	0
Beltrami	0
Benton	0
Big Stone	0
Blue Earth	28,448
Brown	26,822
Carlton	0
Carver	31,579
Cass	0
Chippewa	0
Chisago	4
Clay	0
Clearwater	0
Cook	0
Cottonwood	4,311
Crow Wing	0
Dakota	14
Dodge	6,166
Douglas	1
Faribault	32,857
Fillmore	17,192
Freeborn	16,182
Goodhue	12,838
Grant	0
Hennepin	192,510
Houston	6,099
Hubbard	0
Isanti	2
Itasca	0
Jackson	3,626
Kanabec	5,046
Kandiyohi	5
Kittson	0
Koochiching	0
Lac qui Parle	0
Lake	0
Lake of the Woods	0
Le Sueur	7,406
Lincoln	2,535
Lyon	4,354
McLeod	2
Mahnomen	0
Marshall	0
Martin	55,318
Meeker	1
Mille Lacs	0
Morrison	2
Mower	18,249
Murray	0
Nicollet	5,312
Nobles	3,774
Norman	0
Olmsted	20,292
Otter Tail	0
Pennington	0
Pine	0
Pipestone	3,353
Polk	0
Pope	0
Ramsey	71,204
Red Lake	0
Redwood	4,887
Renville	0
Rice	12,308
Rock	17,066
Roseau	0
St. Louis	0
Scott	13,336
Sherburne	0
Sibley	51,929
Stearns	13,666
Steele	38,112
Stevens	0
Swift	0
Todd	0
Traverse	0
Wabasha	8,058
Wadena	9,575
Waseca	28,393
Washington	61,609
Watonwan	15,323
Wilkin	0
Winona	17,154
Wright	14
Yellow Medicine	0

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 Minnesota, County Marriages Digital Folder Number List.