Dear Amanda Fidler:

In Pennsylvania a marriage record is kept by the county issuing the license. Their is no master state index. Most counties will search their records if you can give them a one to two year spread to search. You must write to each one and ask if they have a search fee and the fee for a certified copy. Many counties have web sites so you can find the information there.

Each county had a different fee list. As a start, I would urge you to find where your grandparents were living in 1930, locate there US Census Record and write or contact the county where they were living for their marriage record. You can make a good guess on the marriage year by looking at the age of the oldest child and go back one or two years to establish a possible marriage year. Good luck.

The following is how I was able to find my parents marriage record.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I thought I knew that my parents were married in Schuylkill Co. around the very early 1930's. About 3 years ago I wrote to Schuylkill Co. without success.

Last year I found a menu from the honeymoon cruise my parents took to Bermuda. It had a date in late August 1931. I felt that finally I had all the information I needed. I wrote again to Schuylkill Co. again without success. I then wrote to all the surrounding counties hoping that they were married in a town close to the Schuylkill Co. border. Again, no luck.

Then in desperation I wrote to the Philadelphia city archives (they were living in Phila. at the time) giving them the estimated date and BINGO! there was the application, license and the slip that the person who preformed the marriage returned to Philadelphia stating that the marriage took place in Ellengown, Schuylkill Co., PA, the date and the priest's name.

In Pennsylvania the county that issued the license, not the county in which the marriage took place, is the one that receives the confirmation document after the marriage takes place from the minister/justice of the peace/etc. The county in which the marriage takes place has no record of the marriage UNLESS THE LICENSE WAS ISSUED IN THAT COUNTY.

Regards,
Jack Novicki