Genesee County Michigan Marriage Records

How To Lookup Marriage Records In Genesee County

What is Marriage Records? It is actually an official term which refers to any set of official certificates which have something to do with a marriage. The word ‘Records’ actually comes from the first document which introduced this system. In 1786, it was Thomas Hales who introduced the first set of laws pertaining to marriage and it was called ‘The act establishing the record of marriages in the said county’. Since then, all the counties in the state have followed the same procedure and made their own records.

For example, in Oakland County, Michigan, all marriage records are kept in a central office maintained by the clerk. A marriage record can either be recorded or not. If a particular person applies for a marriage certificate, the clerk will only need certain details like his/her name and address and if this is present, the clerk will issue the certificate. Otherwise, the application must be forwarded to the county recorder and this is where the trouble starts. The next in the sequence of steps will be to obtain the certificate. In case you are not resident of the county, you can make a request for a duplicate via mail, phone call or through the post.

There are certain restrictions regarding obtaining these records. The first one is that you must personally know the couple who is being married. You may also access the records of someone who is related to the couple but you will be charged for the actual information and for the records. Apart from this, the county clerk may not release the records of a divorced couple or someone who is not a blood relation of the couple.

Apart from this, the state laws may prevent the disclosure of the marriage records to third parties. Some of these laws are in place to protect the privacy rights of the individuals. There are still other laws which allow the releasing of the information to the public though there is a particular fee attached to it. The fee will depend on the number of records to be disclosed and on the information contained within them. You may request these records online.

Once you are through with the process of requesting for the marriage records in Genesee County, the next step is to go through them carefully to ensure that everything is as it should be. If there are any discrepancies then you have the right to file a complaint with the county clerk. The county clerk will be the one to make the final decision on whether the records will be released or not.

When you have all the necessary documents to support your marriage records request, you have to send a personal or office visit to the place of record. The personal visit may be done by phone call or by a personal visit. This will help verify if the information provided by you is correct. Once the verification is done, you can either accept or reject the marriage records. If the records are rejected, you have to again try. This can take a lot of time as the process has to be repeated before you finally get the information that you need.