Birth, death and marriage (Vital Statistics) records were mandated by the Commonwealth to be kept by counties first in 1853. The attempt was a failure. The attempt was a failure undoubtably as much due to the cost imposed on the counties as the difficulties in travel and communications in those days.
Marriage licenses were finally authorized beginning Oct. 1, 1885, to be kept and issued by the counties. This program met with good success, probably because the counties kept the fee so the program was funded, and because the people realized the value of having such a document not only in hand but on file. The documents within a marriage license folder should include an Affidavit, or application, parental consent forms, and a duplicate return, which was a copy signed by the official performing the ceremony and returned to the issuing county clerk. Some counties only kept a record of the marriage on file with the previous documents sent to storage where they were eventually lost or destroyed.
By the late 1800s many cities and townships had Boards of Health already keeping track of births and deaths, so it was decided to try to get the counties to respond to keeping them again. These records were kept in some form or another from 1893 to 1905 on the county level, and not always very well. Largely delegated to the local communities (usually a tax assessor), the record keeping varied considerably, often being incomplete or delayed, with reporting to the county clerk every six months being typical. (In some counties a rider was sent around to pick up township records periodically. How responsible he was depended as much upon the cold weather as his determination to collect the records.) It was decided that the Commonwealth should take over this record keeping and act as a repository for them and the Bureau of Vital Statistics was established in 1906. No records were required before 1893 except as noted. Do not expect them to exist on any government level.
Another item of interest is that an Act of the Assembly in 1941 makes delayed birth registrations a requirement, and many persons who were born before 1893 took advantage of this act and filed them. They are complete with affidavits from people who were related, and from others not related who knew the applicant all their life, and contain more information than was required in the original registrations. Most of these documents are now on microfilm - available for viewing at the PA State Archives or the respective county courthouse, or may be obtained through LDS for use at a Family History Center.
If your dates fall outside of the dates for Commonwealth records, you will have to depend on church, Bible, family records or other published information found in Wills, Deeds and Letters of Administration.
Note though that this is not the case in all states and commonwealths. Some had excellent recording procedures from before the revolution. Consult other information for the availability of public records in other areas of the country.
Information supplied by: Richard Reese.
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