St. Landry Parish Louisiana Marriage Records

Marriage Records in St. Landry Parish

St. Landry Parish in northeast Louisiana contains the vast majority of public marriage records. The parishes of Plaquemines, DeRidder and Plaquier each contain a few records as well. Because this is one of the most populous parishes in the state, it’s also home to the largest number of recorded marriages. The parishes also have some of the most common names for names of the husband and wife found in the records.

If you’re looking for information about your own marriage, these numbers may be what you need. But, if you’re trying to find public marriage records for anyone else, that’s another matter. These records are typically held by the county where the marriage took place. So, if someone performed the ceremony in Lake Pontchartrain, they would have records there. If someone did it in New Orleans, they would have records there.

You may be able to access the marriage records by a simple search through your state’s vital statistics office, or by visiting the website of the county where the event took place. Usually, you can request either the paper or digital versions of the records. Paper records are easier to read and may have different formats than the electronic ones. But, the information is still fairly easy to read. You’ll need to fill in the names of those involved, as well as the year of the event and the location.

To get a digital record, you might need to go online and download some software to do so. Or, you can pay someone to download it for you (the cost varies depending on who you choose). Once it’s downloaded, it may take a day or two to put it onto your computer. Then you just turn it back over to the state or county records office and they will mail it to you. It could take a week or so, depending on when the paper was actually published.

If you’re worried about privacy issues, then this option probably isn’t for you. However, some churches offer this service free of charge for their members. In St. Landry Parish, that’s what happened with ours. We asked them if they would give us a copy and they did. The only problem was the quality; they were pale copies of the actual marriage records and we didn’t want to waste our money.

So now that you know the process, you can begin searching. Just start with the information you already have. Have there been any children? Were they born in the calendar year you searched? These factors could all help narrow your search. If you have a lot of information to work with, the process of looking up St. Landry Parish marriage records should be rather simple.