Arkansas, U.S., Marriage Index, 1933-1939

This database is an index to individuals who were married in the state of Arkansas from 1933-1939. Information that may be found in this database for each entry includes groom's full name, bride's full name, their marriage date, license date, county of marriage, marriage certificate number, and the volume number in which the certificate is located. Marriage records are great sources for genealogists because they document an individual in a particular place and time as well as provide details about that person's marriage. Please note that this index is not complete and may contain inaccuracies.

It is important that you use the information found in this database to locate your ancestor in the original records that this index references. Usually more information is available in the records themselves than is found in an index. For example, marriage records sometimes provide the birth dates and places of the bride and groom, their parents' names, their addresses, and witnesses' names, in addition to the information listed in this index.

Copies of marriage records are available through the Vital Records Division of the Arkansas Department of Health. They maintain marriage records beginning in January 1917. For information about how to obtain a copy, please visit their website.

Statewide registration of marriage did not begin until 1917, but, once counties were organized, most of them began recording marriages. The Division of Vital Records maintains marriage records only since 1917. Earlier records must be obtained from the respective county clerk where the license was issued, which is frequently the count of the bride's residence. Many early marriage records include names of bride and groom, ages, and residence. Later records contain more information.

Taken from Arkansas, Ancestry's Red Book by Wendy L. Elliott, edited by Alice Eichholz. (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1992).

Marriage licenses are the most common marriage records in the United States. They are issued by the appropriate authority prior to the marriage ceremony, and they have come to replace the posting of banns and intentions. Marriage licenses, which grant permission for a marriage to be performed, are returned to civil authorities after the ceremony.

Marriage licenses exist in varying forms. A standard form generally asks for the names of the bride and groom, their residence at the time of application, the date the marriage was performed, the date the license was issued, the place of the marriage, and the name of the person performing the marriage ceremony.

Marriage certificates are given to the couple after the ceremony is completed and are thus usually found among family records. There are exceptions, however. [Some] certificates…are similar to marriage licenses issued in other places. The bride and groom usually receive a marriage certificate for their family records containing similar historical information, signatures of witnesses, etc.

Taken from Cerny, Johni and Sandra H. Luebking, "Research in Marriage and Divorce Records." In The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997).