Location of marriage vs. marriage certificate

Question

When recording the location of a marriage should I record the location as listed on the marriage license or the actual place where the marriage took place?  This probably seems like a silly question but it's something I've often wondered about as in the case of my own marriage, the county where we were married is not the county on our marriage license.  Thank you in advance for any help.

Nicole Smith

Comments

Many years from now, my descendants will find our marriage license record and "correct" my profile for the wrong city/county. There's a story there, but it will take careful digging to find it (and it won't be in any source records).

In the long run, it probably doesn't really matter.

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:)  Yes, my thought when I posted was that it probably doesn't matter.  But as a starting genealogist, it made me think about how to look for marriage records.  I'm not familiar with how it works in other states, (and should be), but in Ohio, we had to get our license from the county where we were living at the time.  However, our marriage ceremony took place at my parents house about an hour north, in a different county.  No idea what happens if we were to have the ceremony out of state?  And possibly if the ceremony had taken place at a church...  it didn't in this case...  there might have been records so it would look like two different locations for the exact same marriage?  maybe?  Sorry, theoretical question to help myself in future possibly.

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I usually find a marriage license and a marriage certificate.  The license grants the permission and the certificate is the proof and usually has the location of the ceremony/event.  Sometimes there is a paragraph on the bottom of the marriage license to be completed when the marriage happens.  I don't think marriage licenses are valid except in the state where they were issued, maybe only in a certain county as well.

Answer 1

It should be the location of the actual marriage.

You could include the place where the license was issued in the biography section of the profile.

Comments

Agreed. Location of marriage means just that.

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If the marriage license was issued in a different place from the marriage location, the biography section of the profile should so indicate -- and make sure the text indicates how you know (or why you think) the location was different (for example, maybe the location was noted on the marriage certificate, or maybe you personally attended the wedding).