Index to Marriage License Affidavits 1861-1921, Sonoma County

Marriage License Affidavits are the application for a marriage license and may well include persons who never actually married. The date may or may not coincide with the actual marriage date of those who did, in fact, get married. The original data is preserved on eight reels of microfilm and contains approximately 14,000 records. In many cases, the condition of the microfilm is exceedingly poor, and the handwritten entries vary from readable to totally unreadable. Many parental consent forms were handwritten notes.

Volumes 1-3 of this publication list the surname, given name and age of the groom; surname, given name and age of the bride; place of residence (town/city); and place of birth (state or country); date of application; and comments such as consent of a guardian for brides under the age of eighteen and grooms under the age of twenty-one. In a few cases, birth dates or other pertinent information is given.

Volume 4 lists the surname and given name of the bride, and the surname and given name of the groom. Entries are listed alphabetically according to surname of the bride, so if you only know the name of the bride, you can find the name of the groom in this volume.

Marriage License Affidavits 1861-1921, Sonoma County, California  is available for research at the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library (the Annex).