SANTA BARBARA COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

Marriage Records from 1850 to 1910

Introduction

From "Record of Marriages Celebrated in the County of Santa Barbara since the passage of a law of the State of California dated April 22, 1850 requiring all marriages to be recorded in the Office of the County Recorder."

The source for the marriage record index contained herein originally was from the actual marriage license applications filed with the Santa Barbara County Recorder by the minister or official performing the ceremony regardless of the location of the ceremony. The application was then dated and the location entered along with the signature of the person performing the ceremony. The ceremony may have been performed in another county in California, and it was up to the minister or some other person involved in the ceremony to see that the document was delivered to the proper county office. Even though a marriage may have been performed in Santa Barbara County, the license may have been acquired and returned to another county.

Members of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society used these license applications from which to extract the information by year beginning with 1850 for this Index. These indexes were first published in the Society's quarterly, Ancestors West, from Vol. I, 1974 through Vol. 12, 1985. In 2005 Society members began transcribing the previously compiled indexes from Ancestors West for Internet access thus sharing this information with the world.

Using the Index

· In the case of some minors who married under the age of consent, the recorded licenses may show by whom the consent was given.

· Indians without surnames are listed under "Indian" as the surname.

· Hispanic surnames can be confusing to the uninitiated since they sometimes constituted both father's name and mother's maiden name.

· Some of the abbreviations that were found in the records were: D. (Don); D^a (Dona); M^a (Maria); Js. (Jesus); Ygn^°, (Ygnacio, Ignacio, Ignacia); Ant^°, (Antonio).

· Records for the years 1860-1861 are few. Only 3-4 records were found. This was confirmed by Dorothy Oksner who viewed the microfilm at the County Recorder's Office in 2007.

Compilers, typists and editors

For the early Index as published in Ancestors West 1974-1985 compilers, typists and editors were:

Margaret Coons Carlton M. Smith Margaret Stanholtzer Victor South

Alice Ovington Lillian M. Fish Norman Scofield Ruth Pelch

Doris Crawford Doreen Dullea Ann Earley Lorraine Laabs

Donna Tepper Virginia Paddock Justine Titus Harry Titus

Harry Glenn Karen Heritage Helen Miller Janet Lawler

Sandy Strickland Carol Kosai

Transcribers, editors and techies for the index herein based upon the printed copies in Ancestors West, working from 2005 to 2007 were:

Helen Rydell Connie Williams Carell Jantzen Emily Aasted

Kim Fults Dorothy Oksner Gary Matz