OK. Admit it. Sometimes you read the tabloids. And you probably remember Britney Spears’s speedy Las Vegas marriage to her childhood friend Jason Alexander—the one that was annulled fifty-five hours later. You probably also remember the scandal involving “home wrecker” Elizabeth Taylor’s Las Vegas marriage to Eddie Fisher on 12 May 1959. After her third husband died in a plane crash, Taylor married his best friend, Fisher, who got a quick Nevada divorce from Debbie Reynolds so that he could marry Taylor.

Scandalous or innocent, many other celebrity couples have also wed in Vegas. The list includes such shining stars as

• Carol Channing—1956
• Steve Lawrence—1957
• Paul Newman—1958
• Mary Tyler Moore—1962
• Judy Garland—1965
• Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow—1966
• Elvis Presley and Priscilla Anne Beaulieu—1967
• Patty Duke—1970
• Cher—1975
• David Cassidy—1977
• Bette Midler—1984
• Joan Collins—1985
• Bruce Willis and Demi Moore—1987
• Dudley Moore—1988
• Michael Jordan—1989
• Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford—1991
• Wayne Newton—1994
• Clint Eastwood—1996

The Marriage Capital of the World
Nevada’s reputation as the marriage capital of the world began in 1912. Legislators in California, tired of couples getting drunk and wedding on impulse, passed the “gin law,” which required people to wait three days between getting their marriage license and saying “I Do.” Californians who wanted to get married fast crossed the border to Nevada, which had no waiting period. Nevada’s reputation as the place to go for a quick marriage began.

Nowadays, Las Vegas still attracts couples for five simple reasons: 1) No waiting period, 2) No blood test, 3) Marriage licenses that cost only $55.00, 4) Wedding chapels open 24/7, and 5) Las Vegas’s romantic reputation. Nevada has the highest number of marriages per capita in the nation; in 2004, almost 7 percent of all U.S. marriages occurred there.

. . . and the Divorce Capital
Las Vegas is a convenient place to get married, but it’s also a convenient place to get divorced. You only have to be a resident of the state for six weeks before officials will grant you a divorce—that’s the lowest residency requirement in the nation. Divorces can also be finalized as quickly as one month.

Written in Stone—Or Paper at Least
Marriages can be quick in Nevada, but they can’t be hidden. The Nevada Index of Marriages, 1956–2006, at Ancestry.com, contains the names of Elizabeth Taylor and all the other celebrities on this list. Go ahead—search for them. And while you’re at it, throw in the name of your current sweetheart (or coworker, or friend, or in-law) to see if he or she ever had a Las Vegas rendezvous.

Feeling more practical? The list is useful for “real” family history too (otherwise, we wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of making it available). Remember, the records don’t just cover Las Vegas—they cover all of Nevada. The Nevada Divorce Index, 1968—2005, contains almost 950,000 names. And the Nevada Marriage Index, 1955—2006, includes the names of 9.7 million. Among them is my cousin, Kevin, who married in Clark County, Nevada five years ago.

*Note: Coverage is incomplete for some counties for some years so read the database descriptions carefully. A description of what is contained in each database is located below the search box on any page of Ancestry.com.