With the change of status for the Clerk of District Court position in North Dakota, the handling of marriage licenses in Cass County was transferred to the Treasurer's Office as of January 1, 2001.  Rather than transfer the older records to the Treasurer's Office it was decided to transfer them to the State Archives for preservation.  Through an on-going agreement between the State Archives and the Institute for Regional Studies at NDSU the marriage licenses with indexes were transferred to the Institute.  The records transferred span from the beginning of recording marriages in the county in the late 1870s through July 1944.  Along with the records are a series of index volumes that provide access by both the husbands' and the wives' names.  Records after 1944 are maintained by the Cass County Treasurer, 211 9th Street South, Fargo, ND 58103.

The Cass County marriage licenses have been organized into two series, indices and the licenses, following the order they had been kept at the courthouse and transferred to the Institute.

The Indices Series contains five index volumes.  The first is a small, slender pocket notebook recording marriage information from 1877 to 1880 and likely is the earliest such record kept of marriages by the county.  The next volume, marked “A,” likely was begun in 1880 and indexes all marriages to 1887 and also indexes the marriages found in the earliest notebook.  This volume is arranged alphabetically by the groom’s name.  There is no index to brides’ names.  The next volume, also marked “A,” was begun around 1887 and includes index information from the earlier volumes.  This volume is the first to record the date the license was issued, and the date and location of recording the license.  This volume also has an alphabetical index by the bride’s name.  Volumes “B” and “C” follow the same format.

An automated index has been prepared to the marriage licenses held at the Institute for Regional Studies.  A printed version is available in the public reading room.

The Marriage Licenses Series consists of the actual licenses and supporting documents and are arranged by license number.  The county office used a consecutive numbering sequence for the licenses, starting with a number “1” on three occasions.  The earliest license numbering sequence has an “A” added, done by Institute staff, and covers from 1879s to 1887.  The “B” was added to the next number sequence.  They cover from 1887 to 1890.  The final number sequence beings with “1” and dates from 1890.

On July 1, 1890 an “Application for Marriage License” form was implemented.  With the application there is also a second form with sections for “Marriage License” and “Certificate of Marriage.”  Only from 1890 to 1897 does the application form ask for the names of the groom’s and bride’s parents.  Later licenses have additional forms related to blood tests and communicable diseases. 
 

Marriage Licenses  |  Cass County