Track Down Free San Bernardino County Marriage Records

Access free San Bernardino County marriage records to determine someone’s marital status, look up their current or former spouse, and more.

According to the California Public Records Act, record information must be readily available to those who seek it. Therefore, interested individuals can retrieve documents showing who got married to whom, when that event happened, and when and where the couple’s marriage license was issued, among other data.

Transparency in public records is important because it helps citizens feel safer and more informed about the people in their lives.

This resource will walk searchers through accessing marriage records in San Bernardino County. Users should always ensure that everyone’s privacy is respected while taking advantage of the tools available to them in California.

How To Search San Bernardino County Marriage Records

Public records are readily available in California for those interested in them. In fact, local marriage records are accessible to anyone at the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk’s office.¹

Any concerned citizen can contact the Clerk’s Office and request a copy of a marriage certificate, regardless of whether they are one of the parties involved in the nuptials or not.

Usually, all marriage certificates become available two weeks after the event is recorded with the county. The only exception exists for confidential marriages, which can only be requested by one of the individuals who got married and no one else.

There are two types of certificates available in San Bernardino (and in the state of California): certified copies and informational copies.

Certified copies carry the state’s seal. They are as official as they get and can be used for official purposes, such as court proceedings, establishing someone’s identity, etc. Only authorized parties can obtain such certificates.

Informational copies, on the other hand, are provided to any interested person as a public record. It contains the same information and details present in a certified copy, but without the seal of the State and with the message that this is merely an information copy – which, consequently, can’t be used for official purposes.

The process of obtaining both types of marriage records is the same, both for procedure and price. Marriage certificates cost $17 and can be ordered via mail, in person or online. To place a request via mail, people must follow the instructions below:

• Print and complete the application;²
• Notarize the signature on the application;
• Send it with payment (using a money order) to the following address:

San Bernardino County Clerk
222 W Hospitality Lane – 1st floor
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0022

Phone: (909) 387-8306

To be seen in person at the address above, interested parties should print out the application and complete it before visiting the office. It’s not necessary to notarize it. It’s necessary, however, to schedule an appointment, as walk-ins may not be seen.

Appointment scheduling is done online, and citizens can choose to visit the already-mentioned main office or a satellite location, whichever is more convenient. This is the address for the second location available:

Recorder Clerk Hesperia Satellite Office
15900 Smoke Tree Street
Hesperia, CA 92345

Online orders can be made with the support of VitalChek.⁴ Searchers should know, though, that this platform may charge extra fees for handling, processing, and shipping (among others), making it a bit more expensive than dealing with the Clerk’s Office directly.

When the search at hand is more focused on genealogical aspects and the goal is to uncover information about family members who got married a long time ago, searching working with the Clerk’s Office may be insufficient. There are tools available for historical pursuits that will be discussed below.

How To Acquire Archived Marriage Records in San Bernardino County California

Sometimes, when searching for San Bernardino County marital records, interested parties may face a roadblock; that’s more common when the marriage in question happened too long ago, and a search for historical records must be performed.

Nowadays, many people have become interested in their family’s history and wish to be able to determine facts about them. Unlike when a record is needed for an official purpose, those individuals are looking for information that may lead them to know more about their ancestors and how they lived.

When working on a genealogical search in San Bernardino County, it’s important to keep in mind that, in California, the State Archives are the official repository of many collections, indexes, and sources that can make this search much more convenient.^{5, 6}

Their website contains lots of information that can be helpful and enriching: documents, records, newspapers, and historical registries are only some examples of what can be used to uncover relevant details about historical marriages.

If someone feels they need more support or if they have questions about how to search those sources, they can contact the State Archives as follows:⁷

California Secretary of State
State Archives
1020 O Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

General Information Phone: 916.653.7715
Reference Desk Phone: 916.653.2246

Another tool that can be helpful in performing genealogical searches is the Library of Congress.⁸ This online platform assists those who are seeking information by providing a list of resources that could be utilized to search and find ancient marriage information that is no longer available at the county’s Clerk’s Office.

How To Locate California Marriage Records Outside of San Bernardino County

In California, a marriage license obtained in any county can be used to officiate weddings anywhere in the state. Therefore, a marriage in San Bernardino may take place using a license issue at a different county – making it harder to find the records about this event, for example.

Whenever a San Bernardino County marriage record search leads nowhere, it’s important to consider that the wedding may have happened in a different county. Or that it may have happened in San Bernardino but recorded in the county where the license was originally issued.

To extend their search, citizens don’t need to search each and every county in California separately. There are more convenient and less time-consuming ways for searchers to uncover marriage information throughout the state.

The California Department of Public Health – Vital Records (CDPH-VR) has many of those records and can help.⁹ If the marriage being searched happened between 1905 and 1999 or 2008 and 2022, those records would be available to the public at the Vital Records Office just like they’d be in San Bernardino.

Anyone can order a certified or informational marriage record online or via mail, regardless of which county recorded those events. For online orders, citizens have to work with one of the partners connected with the State Vital Records Office, as listed at the link above.

Orders by mail must be made following some instructions. Searchers must send in the following:

• The completed and signed application;
• A sworn statement (if they’re entitled to a certified copy);
• A $17 payment

The application and detailed instructions are available online, and this is the information to contact the Vital Records Office:^{11, 12}

California Department of Public Health
Vital Records Office
P.O. Box 997410
Sacramento, California 95899-7410

Phone: 916.445.2684
Email: [email protected]

For marriage records between 2000 and 2007 that aren’t available with the Vital Records Office, searchers would need to contact the local county Clerk-Recorders in order to make a request for copies. As time-consuming as it may be, there’s no way around it.

Also, searchers should be aware that the state of California never recognized common-law marriages. Consequently, those marriages aren’t recorded at any agency and there is no paper trail for them.

How To Get a San Bernardino County Marriage License

Couples who wish to get married in San Bernardino should know that the Recorder-Clerk’s Office issues licenses and performs weddings, as well.¹³

In order to obtain a marriage license, brides and grooms-to-be must be 18 years old or older and unmarried. If one of the parties has recently divorced or had a marriage annulled, they must bring those decrees with them.

It’s also important to have a valid ID at hand and complete the online application. When those steps are done, couples must schedule an appointment to appear at the Recorder-Clerk’s Office in person. Both parties have to appear, but they can choose between the main address and the satellite office, whichever is more convenient.

These are the addresses where San Bernardino citizens may obtain a marriage license:¹⁵

San Bernardino County Clerk
222 W Hospitality Lane – 1st floor
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0022

Phone: (909) 387-8306

Recorder Clerk Hesperia Satellite Office
15900 Smoke Tree Street
Hesperia, CA 92345

When requesting a license, couples have to consider how they want their wedding to be officiated. They can marry at the Clerk’s Office (and they’re available to officiate it on the spot, with no need for a waiting period), or they can have an authorized person officiate it at a different location within 90 days of the marriage license issuance.

Regular marriage licenses cost $89, and confidential marriage licenses cost $100. If the couple wishes to marry at the Clerk’s Office, the ceremony costs $65.

Marriage records are public because it’s important that people’s marital status is clear to the community. Transparency allows people to know who they’re connecting with and helps them make the best possible decision about how to move forward with those relationships.

No one should never hesitate to run a San Bernardino County marriage records search whenever they consider it important to determine facts about someone they know.