Summit County, Ohio, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1980

Contained in this database are Summit County, Ohio marriage applications and licenses from 1840-1980. The county probate courts of the state of Ohio have kept marriage records since the county was founded from a portion of the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1840. Later records may contain additional information such as age, birth date, birthplace, occupation, parents’ names, and the like.

Kathi Sittner writes that marriage ceremonies previous to county regulation “were performed by clergymen who may or may not have been the heads of established churches. Many records found in church books have been published either as records for a particular church or in compiled early marriage indexes for the state.” In 1888 Ohio required that a marriage license actually be obtained from authorized county officials before the ceremony could be performed. Although regulation of marriage licenses varied from state to state, eventually laws requiring medical examinations or waiting periods between obtaining a license and the marriage ceremony became more standardized.

Some of the above information was taken from:

• Sittner, Kathi. “Marriage Records.” Ancestry Magazine, Sept/Oct 1994, Vol 12: 5 (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 1994).

Information in this index:

• Surname
• Marriage application/license date
• Marriage application/license location
• Spouse’s name

For copies of the original file, write to:

• Summit County Court of Common Pleas - Probate Division
  209 South High Street
  Akron, Ohio 44308-1616