Marriage contracts, 1901-1967, bulk: 1902-1907
Scope and Contents
Consists of marriage contracts received by the City Clerk after they were signed in the presence of a notary public or attorney (with a few exceptions), 1901-1967. The vase majority date from 1902-1907 (date of marriage contract, not date the contract was filed). Though there are marriage contracts for people from all five boroughs of New York City, the contracts are arranged by a sequential number assinged by the City Clerk's Office, numbers 1 to 8616. Most contracts were filed within a few days of the marriage but the 8600 numbered contracts were filed a few months or sometimes years after the marriage. Marriage contracts before 1908 pre-date the marriage license requirement. The contracts are primarily typed with handwritten entries for specific information, though there are some handwritten documents. Information on the contracts include the name and address of the persons getting married; names and residences of the witnesses; name of the notary public; signatures of all involved, plus the date the contract was received by the City Clerk. Sometimes the place of birth of the bride and groom is also listed. The marriage contracts were accessioned by the NYC Municipal Archives in 1987 as ACC-1987-026.
An inventory of the contracts was created during the processing of the material. Information recorded in the inventory includes the name of the bride and groom, marriage contract number (number assigned by the City Clerk), date of contract, and date the contract was filed. See External Documents (below) to access the inventory.
An inventory of the contracts was created during the processing of the material. Information recorded in the inventory includes the name of the bride and groom, marriage contract number (number assigned by the City Clerk), date of contract, and date the contract was filed. See External Documents (below) to access the inventory.
Extent
18 cubic feet (43 half cubic foot boxes and 1 quarter cubic foot box)
Dates
1901-1967, bulk 1902-1907
Creators
Conditions Governing Access
See the individual subseries of each series in this subgroup for how to access material in this subgroup. The marriage licenses are currently being digitized and will be uploaded to the NYCMA's Historical Vital Records website periodically during digitization.
Additional Description
Arrangement
Arranged numerically by contract number, then chronologically.