The earliest marriage record in the Ionia County Clerk’s office is dated 6 Oct 1837. The Ionia County Clerk holds a marriage register with scattered marriages from 1837 until 1867 when they switched from marriage registers completed by the Justice of the Peace to individual marriage returns. The office used these individual marriage returns, until switching to the current method of a one page combined marriage license and marriage certificate. I was unable to determine the date at which the combined license and certificate was instituted. Consents for the marriage of minors are held at the county probate officer.

To the best of the clerk’s knowledge, no records have been lost or destroyed, although in earlier years (before 1867), not all records were received from the Justices to be recorded. Since the institution of the one page license/certificate, the form is prepared in triplicate. One copy stays in the County Clerk’s office, one copy goes to the marriage couple and one copy is sent to the State of Michigan offices. Recent records are not available for public "browsing" but are available if the researcher knows the names of the parties and the date of the marriage.

In determining the accuracy of any vital record, you must keep in mind that any record has room for inaccuracies. The names on a marriage document are usually correct as they were given by the individuals, themselves. The ages may not be correct, for obvious reasons! In the older records, where the returns were made by the justice of the peace or the minister, any of the information can be incorrect as these returns were often filed weeks or even months after the event.

The Department of Public Health is required by Act 368 of 1978, to collect the statutory fee before a search may be made for any record. Checks and money orders are to be made payable to the STATE OF MICHIGAN.

Minimum fee for one certified copy is $13.00. Additional copes of the same record are $4.00 each. Additional years searched over 3 years are an additional $4.00 for each year searched over the 3 year search limit. FEES PAID TO SEARCH THE FILES ARE NOT REFUNDABLE, When a record is not found, the applicant will receive notification that the record requested is not on file in the office.

In 1867 the state legislature passed Act 194 requiring every justice of the peace, minister of the gospel, and all other persons authorized to solemnize marriages in Michigan to make note of each marriage performed by them and to deliver to the clerk o the county in which such marriage took place documentary evidence that the ceremony had been performed. Information to be recorded was date , names of parties, ages, race, residence, birth places, occupations, number of times previously married, pace of marriage, the couple's parents' names, the name of the presiding official, plus the names and residences of the witnesses. These facts were to be recorded by the county clerk and then forwarded to the Secretary of State. In 1921, by virtue of Act 170, the duties of the Secretary of State with respect to marriage records were transferred to the Department of Public Health. The are no listed registers specific to Ionia County in the Archives.