Top Ways to Search Virginia Marriage Records
Are you in need of records about a Virginia marriage? There are 4 ways to get access to Virginia marriage records. In this article we look at each of these ways. By the time you're done, you will be able to confidently select the approach that will work best for you. Let's start by talking about the Virginia vital records system.
Getting Certified Records
Birth, Death, Marriage, and Divorce records are all maintained by the Virginia Department of Health Office of Vital Records. This office provides certified copies of any of these forms of vital records and can only provide certified copies of marriage records, regardless of how you intend to use the information. So even if you were doing a simple genealogy project, you would still have to order and wait for a certified copy of the marriage record to be delivered before you could get your information.
When going through the state, you have three options. You can request a copy by mail, which they will put in the mail to you 1 to 2 weeks after the date the request form is received by the state.
You can go to a Virginia Division of Vital Records and Health Statistics office and request a copy in person. This gets you the document the same day, provided that you have acceptable photo ID.
The third way is to order certified copies through a third-party service called VitalChek. For a cost of , this service can get you a certified copy of the marriage certificate in 2 to 5 business days.95 (or more) and must be paid using credit card.
When You Just Need Information
For situations where all you need is information rather than a certified copy of a document, there’s a much faster way to go. Using a commercial Marriage Records Search service, you can research Virginia marriage records in minutes.
These services aren't a part of the state. They're indepenedent businesses that use information provided by the states to get you the information you need. It is possible for the service to get you your information almost instantly. That's because they are simply looking up the facts about the marriage in their database instead of finding and creating a certified copy of the actual document.
As you can see, there are clear differences between the various ways of getting information. If you need a certified copy of the marriage documents, you need to start at the state’s website (listed below).
Virginia Department of Health, Office of Vital Records: http://www.vdh.state.va.us/Vital_Records/index.htm
Remember: If you simply need to get the facts about this marriage, rather than a certified copy of the wedding certificate, you can have your information in minutes if you just Click Here!
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