How To Find Out If Someone Got Married

How to find out if someone got married involves searching through public documents and viewing personal online records. Free searching requires quite a bit of time and legwork, while paying for an online report requires waiting a month or two for the information to be researched by paid help working for the detective-type search engines and the material to be posted to the reports. Reports for religious or church services are not required by state and local agencies, so unless the person got married after obtaining a marriage license, you're out of luck. There is no guarantee that the information you found is accurate. Many genealogy sources have records of marriages, but newlyweds are not normally included in the documents.

You'll need a few things to research how to find out if someone got married include;

• computer with Internet access
• access to county legal records

1. Start with the computer and online sources. There are numerous commercial web sites selling personal information. List the name of the person you suspect was married with quotation marks around the first and last name. If you know a middle name or initial, search also under that name. Most commercial sites will list all the individuals with a name that matches your search term. The names are usually organized by the state where the person lived. If the person moved around quite a bit, you may find your subject in several states. To one side of the search name are a list of names related on legal documents to that person. If you know the names of any other family members, then that will assist you in locating a match. Most sites also offer an age of the person. This may be a year or two off, so don't be too critical about the birth date listed. If you have a three-point match, with a birth date, address and relatives, you can guess that the person is the one you're looking for. Uncommon names are the easiest people to find. If you suspect a name for the spouse, then try a search using your subject's name with the spouse's last name. Prices and the amount of information provided differ greatly from service to service. 
2. If you know the county where the marriage might have taken place, try the county records department. Large counties can take months, or even years, to file official documents, so the smaller county, the better chance you'll have in finding a filed marriage certificate. For long-term marriages, some counties offer online services. You can pay a fee and request a copy of the certificate. 
3. Try online family genealogy services. Large online genealogy services can assist in finding out how to find out if someone got married, if the marriage took place at least two years ago. Older marriages are part of public record. Telephone books, income tax records, property tax materials and various other municipal records may identify married partners. Since these agencies rarely inspect the marriage statement for legal validity, the couple may be living as husband and wife without the benefit of a marriage license. The only way you'll be able to verify a marriage is by viewing a copy of the marriage license or observing the name listed on official county documents. Older records, the definition of "older" differs from state to state, may even be obtained by writing to the county where the suspected marriage took place.