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For Alabama public marriage records, order a certified marriage certificate through the Center for Health Statistics when the marriage occurred within the statewide series. For an earlier marriage, contact the probate office in the county that issued the marriage license.
Route the marriage by date and document source
| Marriage situation | Primary source |
|---|---|
| August 1936 or later certificate | Alabama Center for Health Statistics. |
| Earlier marriage record | Probate office in the county that issued the license. |
| New marriage-license question | County probate office rather than the state certificate-copy process. |
| Correction to an existing record | Follow the correction path published for the certificate and issuing county. |
Prepare a state marriage-certificate request
1
Confirm the marriage dateThis determines whether the event belongs to the statewide certificate series.2
Identify the license countyCounty information makes both state searching and older-record routing more reliable.3
Use the names recorded at marriageMatch the request to the names under which the event was registered.4
Order the needed number of certified copiesRequest additional copies together when the same certificate will be used in several places.Ordering an old certificate is not applying for a marriage license
Existing marriage certificate
- Documents a marriage that has already been recorded.
- The state can search covered years using event identifiers.
- A certified copy is produced from the recorded event.
New marriage authorization
- Handled at the county level under current Alabama marriage procedures.
- Concerns a future or newly executed marriage rather than historical proof.
- Uses a different workflow from a certificate-copy request.
Treat the state charge as a search transaction
Alabama’s published vital-record pricing ties the initial charge to a search. When the marriage record is found, one certified copy is included; if it is not located, the office can issue a failure-to-find result instead. Accurate names, date and county help prevent a weak request from consuming the search fee without locating the intended event.
A county probate office can have a different fee schedule for older local records. If the marriage falls outside statewide coverage, ask that county office about its own copy and certification charges instead of applying the state price to a local record.