Marriage - historical searches
North Yorkshire County Council Opens in a new window can provide copies of marriage certificates after the ceremony has taken place and copies of historical marriage certificates for family history research. Requests should be made to the registration office or church that issued the certificate or to the certificate service at Harrogate register office, depending on where the records are kept at the time of the request.
When you register a marriage at a registration office, the event is recorded in a register. This is a large hard backed book which holds 300 records. The register will stay in the custody of the registrar until it is full, after which time it will be sent to the central repository at Harrogate register office. The repository is looked after by the certificate service.
If the marriage took place in a church, the register stays at the church until it is full. When the register is full it is sent to Harrogate. However, it can take many years for a church to fill a register and indeed one church register was in continuous use from 1856 to 1999. If your marriage was a recent one, we suggest you approach the church first.
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