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Marriages that took place between 1763 and 1900 have been kept in Marriage License Records by the Illinois State Archives in collaboration with the Illinois State Genealogical Society. This was in effort to preserve the historical public marriage documents of Illinois residents. Over 1 million of such files can be found which due to the efforts of these two entities, are they accessible by the public. This public service is meant to be easily available to users in general and that has been greatly boosted with the advent of the Internet. People can now obtain free marriage records information online without having to leave home or office, saving a great deal of time and costs in travelling and waiting in line. They only have to get onto a computer and log on to the Internet. The County Clerks are the ones responsible for this type of information which they obtain from the original marriage records that entails marriage registers, certificated, licenses and other useful information. The County Genealogical societies also contribute in this way along with private citizens where they upload such documents voluntarily on the internet. Typically, the information consists of the personal particulars of the marrying couple, their parents', names of witnesses and officiant of the marriage and the date and place of the occasion. Although a ceremony or wedding is not mandatory, it must be in the county for which the marriage license is granted if one is conducted but neither of the couple need to be a local resident of the county. Therefore, if a search fails in the known county of residence, it's worth a shot to extend it to a statewide one instead. The Illinois State-wide Marriage Index has a listing of all public marriages within Illinois. The Illinois Regional Archives Depository System (IRAD) keeps the entire original as well as microfilm copies of such documents. Even uncertified copies of marriages are kept by the IRAD from 70 counties of the 102 in Illinois; which are not requested by the County Clerks. In addition, these offices are the only authoritative sources of the certified copies of marriage records. Illinois marriages records are public records. As such, they are freely available from commercial information providers. The top tier of such private data-houses is highly professional. On top of public sources, they also have access to proprietary databases and networks. Competition is intense so only bona-fide can hold their own. This makes for good value for money. It's no wonder why this form of information search is gaining popularity. Do-it-yourself State Of Illinois Marriage Records are tricky. Come and share our information on Marriage License Records and see why.
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Illinois Marriage Records, Public Marriage Records,
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