New York Updated Marriage License

By Ben Kingsley


Marriage records in New York is one of the most accessed documents in the state. Marriage certificates are now easy to obtain after the Freedom of Information Act has been implemented nationwide.

In the state of New York, marriage records are used in a number of reasons. It is one of the primary sources of information when conducting a genealogy research. Aside from this, government transactions may also call for a copy of a marriage certificate. Some request may not be processed without such documents especially if it involves the couple like insurance and other financial matters. There are individuals who conduct a background check on the marital status of their partners. They do this to make sure that the one they are dating is really single as they have claimed.

Details about the marriage are the highlights of the document. One would find the real names of the couple who get married along with details as to when and where the couple filed their marriage. The birth details of the bride and the groom are also indicated on the record together with the names of the couple's parents. The witnesses are important in marriage application thus; their names are part of a public marriage certificate.

Retrieval of the record can be done without any problem if one follows the basic requirements of such request. It is important that the one who request for the certificate has knowledge about the record that is being requested. Information about the marriage has to be indicated on the request form together with the contact details of the one who filed the request. This can help speed up the search process. A photocopy of any government issued IDs are also part of the requirement. One can present any of the following cards: Passport, Military ID or even the driver's license. A 12 week wait time is observed before the actual document can be obtained from the record. However, if one does not have such time, one can pay extra for a priority search which can cut the wait time to only 4 weeks.

Marriages that took place since 1881 are available in the state of New York. If the records are requested to be used for genealogy research, it can only be released if it has reached 50 years on the archive. A fee of $30 has to be paid in the retrieval process. However, fees would vary in some counties. Counties such as Albany, Buffalo and Yonkers have to be requested at the county offices.

Records of marriage in New York are now available online. This means that there is no need to go to any office to file the request since it can be done through the Internet. Also, the retrieval of the document can be done in just seconds instead of weeks. Information is gathered from several linked servers so one can be sure of the quality of the results especially if paid service was done.




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