A Brief History of the Marriage Indexing Project

In 1966 the Genealogical Society of Utah (which is the non-profit genealogical agency of the LDS church) filmed a group of Marriage Certificates, Licenses, and permission documentation in Milwaukee. Most of these documents had been created in Milwaukee, but some of them came with immigrants from other locations. Many of the early records were for Waukesha and Washington Counties. These documents were found in a storage box and had been created in the years between 1822 and 1876. They were filmed in no particular order, and were not always in very good condition. The Milwaukee Public library has had copies of these microfilms since 1966 - but without an index it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

In 1999 letters were exchanged between the LDS group in Utah and the MCGS in Milwaukee so the marriage indexing project began. Copies of the films which had been numbered to enable the indexing process along with paper copies arrived in summer of 2000. There were 14 reels of microfilm that were processed into 19,960 legal size sheets of paper (with sometimes up to twelves records on a sheet).

Roger Cobb with Lois Molitor acted as project coordinators. Many, many volunteers put in uncounted hours working to get the copies out and read. They were checked and double-checked and then rechecked numerous times. The usual - but unanticipated problems occurred - with different numbering and imaging techniques. Repeatedly, with each new attempt, Roger went through the records to make sure that all the components of the index codes matched with the records. These records with their numbering systems were then also created in CD form. This allows facilities that do not either have microfilm or computer resources to use whichever form is best for them. The index itself was included on a CD as well as in paper form.

As a side note, some of the records do appear in the Wisconsin Pre-1907 Index and some do not. Some records can be found or are referenced in the Milwaukee County Courthouse records, and some are not found anywhere else. The original copies that were filmed in 1966 have vanished - whether back in lost storage or gone forever?? So, for some researchers, this may be the only way to remove an important brick in their brick wall.

Back to the Marriage Index Page