Access to Chicago and Cook County records has changed a number of times in the 10+ years I've been doing research in the city and sometimes it's hard to keep up. This is the first in a series of three posts aimed at answering the question, "Where should I look for vital records?" For marriages, in short, (no matter what an index search may tell you about availability ), you can get licenses from 1871 to 1941 online through FamilySearch by visiting a Family History Center or an affiliate library . After that, you'll need to contact the Cook County Clerk's Office for the records. Unlike birth and death records, marriage licenses were numbered consecutively without starting over. So, if you have a license number, you can easily pick a "film" from the record groups linked below and play the high/low number game to zero in on the right image. If you have a film number and an image number, you can go right to the document. And, if you have neither
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