This is a listing of six thousand two hundred and ninety-eight (6,298) La Plata County marriages records from 6/19/1877 through 7/2/1959 (plus a solitary record for an 1876 marriage, on October 20, of noted local pioneer miner John Moss and Alida Elsen) that are available for researchers' use in the Delaney Southwest Research Library at the Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.  However, as large as it is, nonetheless this cannot be considered a comprehensive list of all marriages in the County.  For instance, the Center only has records of two marriages in the year 1919, and none for 1920.

To access this list: the entries in these lists are arranged by date -- of the wedding, if stated; otherwise, by date of the marriage license application.   Because of the quantity of marriage records at the Center of Southwest Studies, the list is divided into separate pages, by groups of years.

Search tip: search for names using the Edit-> Find in Page (Ctrl+F) feature on your Web browser.

None of these documents circulate; they must be used in the Research Room at the Delaney Library.  To view one of these licenses (from December, 1896), click here.

1877 -1889	1890 -1894	1895-1899	1900-1904	1905-1909	1910-1914	to order a copy
1915-1919	1921-1925	1925-1929	1930-1934	1935-1939	1940-1949	1950-1959

These records are two series in collection M 028 (La Plata County (Colo.) Government Records) at the Center of Southwest Studies.  The marriage licenses and certificates, 1876-1959 and the marriage license applications, 1881-1919, are Series 3.2 and 3.3, respectively.  These records were arranged in June and July of 2000 by Paul Beckler who (appropriately!) got married two weeks before he started work on the project.  The data entry was by student archival assistant Logan Morley, during the 2002-03 school year.  He, likewise, got married at the end of the school year in which he did this work.

These are the originals; the La Plata County Clerk had CD-ROM and microfilm reproductions produced from these originals prior to their transfer to the Center.  These originals did not arrive in any order, and were not in folders until processed at the Center.  The Center's accession number for these records is 2000:05001 (10.5 linear shelf feet of records).

To request a copy:  To order a two-sided photocopy of a marriage license from this collection, please complete the Photoduplication Request form and remit payment.  The total charge for the copy and shipping and handling per license or certificate is $5.00.  You may pay using a credit card and fax or snail-mail it to the Center along with the Photodup. form) or by mailing us that form with a check payable to Fort Lewis College, and we'll mail this copy out to you.  The following is what one of these licenses (the marriage license for R. T. Nelson and Mary J. Hoves (or Hover?) who were married on 12/27/1896) (measuring 15" x 9") looks like, front and back (the front side has two forms on it: the top form is the license, the lower form is the certificate of marriage).

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This guide was produced by Todd Ellison, Certified Archivist, Center of Southwest Studies.  Student archival assistant Paul T. Beckler physically arranged the records in the summer of 2000.  The data entry was by student archival assistant Logan Morley, during the 2002-03 school year.

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Doing your own research: This description of a portion of the collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and depth of the repository's collections.  It cannot serve as a substitute for a visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the collections.

This collection is located at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College.  Researchers wanting more information about using this material at the Delaney Southwest Research Library at the Center may email the archivist at archives@fortlewis.edu.

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Page revised: April 09, 2007