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Step 1
Contact the county courthouse. If you call ahead of time and tell them what information you are looking for, some will put the information aside for you to pick up. There is usually a small fee for paperwork. You will need to know the full names of the husband and wife (including her maiden name), the date of the marriage and where in the county they were married.
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Step 2
If the county courthouse does not have the records or if the records are only kept at the state level, check the state archives. You can access the state archives by going to the state government page. There is usually a fee for this information, and again, you will need the full names and date of the marriage.
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Step 3
Search online through VitalRec.com. (Follow the link in Resources.) Fill in the first and last name and the city and state. You will be directed to that state and the information you need. There is a fee to obtain the information.
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Step 4
If you don't have all the information you need to find the marriage certificate, consider looking at church records, talking to people who knew the couple or perusing old newspapers for wedding and engagement announcements. Look for the oldest child and estimate how long they were married by the age of the child. Look for marriage licenses instead of the marriage certificate, to give you an idea of when they requested the license and therefore may have been married. With a little ingenuity, you should be able to find the information, because marriage certificates were usually completed immediately by the person who married the couple.
