MARRIAGES

Births * Marriages * Divorces * Deaths

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN MARRIAGE RECORDS

In 1867 the state legislature passed Act 194 requiring every justice of the peace, minister of the gospel, and all other persons authorized to solemnize marriages in Michigan to make note of each marriage performed by them and to deliver to the clerk of the county in which such marriage took place documentary evidence that the ceremony had been performed. Information to be recorded was date, names of parties, ages, race, residence, birth places, occupations, number of times previously married, pace of marriage, the couple's parents' names, the name of the presiding official, plus the names and residences of the witnesses. These facts were to be recorded by the county clerk and then forwarded to the Secretary of State. In 1921, by virtue of Act 170, the duties of the Secretary of State with respect to marriage records were transferred to the Department of Public Health. Microfilms of the archived reports are at the State Library and Historical Center, which as of 2009, the Governor and the Legisture are in the process of eliminating the department.