Recently, my husband received a notice that he was due an inheritance from when his mother died several years earlier. However, he needed to prove his ancestry through a marriage records search to do so. This may sound a tad strange to some but it is not that uncommon when family inheritance comes to play.

Tracing Genealogy through Marriage Records

My husband is Native American and that is why he needed to search through the marriage records to prove his family history. His mother had died and was receiving checks through the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

My husband had never been registered with the tribe and therefore was not eligible under tribal law to receive the inheritance money unless he could prove his ancestry and enroll in the tribe. In order to do so, he had to trace his Indian blood. This means he had to search marriage records.

Finding Marriage Records

When you look for marriage records, you need the bride and grooms last name. This is generally easy, as you know your parent’s name. Remember that you will need your mother’s maiden name. You will need to look in the county and state your parents were married. You can do a quick search online. Online databases make looking for this information quick. It should only take you a few minutes at most.

You will also want to look up each person individually. While you will know if your parents remarried, when you start going deeper into the family, it never hurts to check grandparents. I uncovered that my grandmother was married at 13. She got divorced and married my grandfather and never told a soul!

Finding Birth Records

Once you have the marriage records, you will want to look for birth records. When you see their birth records, you can find out information on the parents. The birth records will list the parents’ full names. This will give you a chance to start tracing back the family roots. The birth records will also list the occupation of the parents, which is also fun to look through.

Creating a family tree does not have to be a long tedious project. Long gone are the days of shifting through shoeboxes and newspaper clippings. Anyone can start tracing their roots quickly and easily with nothing more to go on than their parents’ name. They really don’t even need that.

If you have your name, you can start there. Start tracing your genealogy today through marriage records search. It is quick, simple and fun. You never know what you will turn up.

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