The following is copied directly from the WSMR
Index Website:
For nearly three decades, the BYU-IDAHO (formerly
Ricks
College) Arthur Porter Special Collections area of the David O. McKay
Library at
Rexburg,
Idaho
has been extracting early marriage records from counties in the
western part of the United States. This extraction is called the Western States Marriage Index.
In
August 2006, this index was turned over to the
Idaho Falls
Regional
Family
History
Center in Idaho Falls,
Idaho, when Blaine Bake, who began the index, retired from the
university.
Most of the pre-1900 marriages are included in the index for
Arizona,
Idaho
and
Nevada. Many counties for those same states have been extracted into the
1930’s, and some much later. A
significant number of marriages from selected counties in
California, western
Colorado,
Montana,
Oregon,
Utah, eastern
Washington, and
Wyoming
are also included. Very early marriages (1700’s) in New Mexico
are currently being added. For more details, see “List of counties
by state”. As of June
14, 2009, this file contains over 686,858 marriage records with
additional marriage records being added nearly every working day.
At this time the index is not comprehensive for the time
period and/or localities described. However, the goal for this index
is to have marriages from all twelve western states at the
fingertips of family researchers. In the meantime, the index
represents an effort to share results even though the index is
incomplete and further proof reading and editing may be needed.
Users are invited to notify us when errors are found or corrections
needed.
Please note that parents of the bride and groom are seldom
mentioned in the marriage records. As in the case for all indexes,
it is recommended that the original marriage records be reviewed for
additional information not extracted and for transcription accuracy.
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Each entry in the index may contain the following:
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Names of bride and groom
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Marriage date and place
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County and state in which the marriage is recorded
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Residency of the bride and/or groom
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Miscellaneous comments