Louisiana, Parish Marriages, 1787-1958

What is in This Collection?

The collection consists of marriage licenses and certificates, including a few marriage declarations and marriage stubs for the years 1837 to 1957.

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 usually recorded by the clerk of the district court for each parish (county) from the time the parish 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.

The form type varies between register style and certificate style. 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.

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:

Marriage

Collection Content

Sample Image

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  1955 Marriage Record

Digital Folder List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. These collections do not include any human-readable waypoint data making them difficult to use. A table showing each DGS number and its contents can be found in Louisiana, Parish Marriages Digital Folder Number List. The list can be sorted by DGS number, certificate type, year, and volume.