Early Marriages - temple ceremonies vs. civil ceremonies

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Permalink Reply by Fran Jensen on July 14, 2009 at 10:23am

I found the answer to your question on the FamilySearch Research Wiki:

County Marriage Records

Records before 1887. Civil registration of marriages was not required in Utah until 1887; however, some records of marriages before 1887 are in the justice of the peace or probate court records. These early marriage records were usually interfiled with other court matters. For a description of records of marriage in Utah before 1887, see an explanation of sources in the Western States Marriage Index under "Pre-1887 Sources for Utah Counties."

Most of these court records are currently at either the county clerk's office or the Utah State Archives. Some are also in the personal journals of individual judges. The Family History Library has pre-1887 court records for a number of Utah counties.

Here's the link to the article: Utah Vital Records

Permalink Reply by Christy Fillerup on July 14, 2009 at 10:50am

Hi Jan,

I appreciate your thorough answer. The FamilySearch Wiki is wonderful. I actually am pretty familiar with early Utah marriage records and where to find them. I actually write a column on Utah research, which is part of the reason for my original question.

What I am not sure of is if a ceremony in the LDS endowment house or an LDS temple was ever considered the only ceremony needed, and no additional record was created. Or whether, like today, an LDS temple ceremony was considered a civil marriage as well and a civil certificate was issued at the same time the temple ceremony is performed.

For example I have a few cases where the sealing records are easily found, but no civil marriage entry (in any of the sources you listed above--a great list by the way) is found. I would consider the existence of a temple sealing enough evidence to prove a marriage, however this would be useful information for me to include in my column as temple records are not open to all researchers.

Thanks!
Christy Fillerup

Permalink Reply by Christy Fillerup on July 14, 2009 at 10:38pm

I am so embarrassed. Please forgive me Fran, for typing "Jan" as your name.