# Is there a safe online website to search for marriage certificates?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 17, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600 "2010-06-17T21:21:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600/1 "2010-06-17T21:21:36Z")

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I’m trying to trace a long-lost friend who I believe may have passed on a couple of years ago. However, she married a long time ago and I don’t know her married name. I’d like to try to find her marriage certificate online, but searches turn up highly suspect-looking websites, and I’m leery of providing these sites anything like a credit card number.

Can anyone recommend an un-skeevy website? Thanks for any help.

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**Author:** ![rowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@rowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowe)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600/2 "2010-06-17T22:01:22Z")

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Texas has a decent online free search engine for marriages in that state. Not sure about others though.

[http://www.genlookups.com/texas\_marriages/](http://www.genlookups.com/texas_marriages/)

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600/3 "2010-06-18T00:53:35Z")

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Do you know what county in what state she would have been married? If so you need to find that county’s probate court’s Web site and search for her maiden name.

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**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600/4 "2010-06-18T00:56:26Z")

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Will they release that information to non-family members?

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-safe-online-website-to-search-for-marriage-certificates/543600/5 "2010-06-18T01:55:05Z")

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Absolutely - it’s public record.