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Indiana State Library |
Indiana State Library
Genealogy Database:
Marriages through 1850
About the IndexThe Index to Indiana Marriages Through 1850 began many years ago through a project initiated by Dorothy Riker the late former Editor of The Hoosier Genealogist, which listed the name of the groom in county listings in this publication. Later, brides names were added to the original card set of groom names in the Genealogy Division. Volunteers expanded the card set to include all dates through 1850 for counties where marriage records existed. This became a database which contains approximately 330,000 records totaling 90.5 MB of electronic data. In addition to the marriage listings which index the county courthouse records, the database includes marriages which were noted from the early Quaker monthly meetings in Indiana. These Quaker marriages were listed in the Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana compiled by Willard Heiss, (Call Number Geneal. 929.102 F911h v. 7). In addition the database includes listings for the St. Francis Xavier parish church in Vincennes, Indiana which date from 1749. There may be some misinterpretation of the information from the original records or indexes that was included in the database due to the number of volunteers that worked on the project. We continue to proofread the database and make corrections when needed. We invite any comments and suggestions. Corrections to the database will be made only if an exact copy of the marriage license or return is sent to us at the address below:
Indiana
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General Searching Instructions
What to enter in the search fields:
last name -- enter a last name. It does not matter if it is the bride or the groom. The search results will display the spouse information.
first name -- enter a first name. It does not matter if it is the bride or the groom. The search results will display the spouse information.
spouse- last name -- enter a last name. It does not matter if it is the bride or the groom.
spouse- first name -- enter a last name. It does not matter if it is the bride or the groom.
county of marriage -- enter the name of a county.
remarks -- enter any miscellaneous information that you may have about the marriage. For example: "Quaker" or "St. Francis Xavier" to search for those records.
When you are finished typing the name, be sure to click the "Like Search" button. If you do not, you will receive an error message.
Caution: If the surname that you are searching in the last name field returns no results, or very few names, try spouse last name field. In the process of data entry when the information was originally placed online there was a lack of uniformity, in some cases on how the names were entered in the last name field. Return to the