The state of California has been keeping marriage files since 1850 up to this day. The California Marriage Records are maintained and kept by the California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records. The office does not only keep marriage licenses, they also keep other related documents such as divorce files. Not all of the public information has been kept by the state. Public marriages that were indexed on the years 1949-1986 and 1998-1999, are the only indexed files.

These documents can be easily viewed at any county offices all over the state of California. In most cases, these are usually accessed for genealogical research, background check, legal undertaking and others.

Requesting for a certified marriage license one would need to pay the standard fee of $14.00 to the Office of Vital Records. However, special request such are printing hardcopies or burning the information on to a CD or DVD would need an additional charge for the specialized computer application installed, supplies used, time consumed and labor of the employee.

In order to obtain a copy of your marriage certificate, you need to fill out the marriage certificate application form. You need to have the statement notarized and signed under the penalty of perjury. On July 1, 2003, a bill was passed which requires a copy of your birth certificate when you request for your marriage certificate. Basic marriage information will also be needed such as the couple’s name and date of marriage. You need to fulfill all of these requirements otherwise your request will be rejected by the Office of Vital Records and your incomplete request will be returned for completion. When it comes to mail requests, you only need to send a notarized application form for the office to process your request.

The state of California has made the retrieval of the marriage license faster as they developed an online facility to retrieve a certified copy of marriage license. Those who are not currently in California can make use of the services offered by third party companies to retrieve marriage certificate; however they have to pay for an extra fee when availing the service. The availability of third party companies has helped many in retrieving such documents. Many would choose this option instead of going back to California to retrieve the document themselves. The option of getting the marriage record yourself may be convenient but may cause delay since the Office of the Vital Records may have other pending requests.

With technology offering new ways to access data faster and more convenient, getting the California Marriage Records yourself may be the best way to avoid having to pay additional fee and to fall in line and maybe spend a whole day to process the request.

Let us help you learn the facts about California Marriage Records before you pick your Marriage Records online.