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Do military records have marriage date?

I want to order military records on my late grandfather. My father is still alive, but does not know marriage date of his parents or where. I am trying to do our family history, since he is next of kin, I want him to ask for these to see if it is in there. Hopefully it is or someone knows and can answer this question for me ahead of time. I also plan to look for an obituary record that might tell me the same.

Public Comments

1. Military records do not generally have marriage information. It might have a spouse's name but that would be about it.
2. I suggest you order them anyway. I doubt that it is in there, unless MAYBE he married while in the service, and needed proof for allotment? You are not talking Civil war... but I do have pension records for one ancestor, that did have date and place of marriage. The marriage was in a 'burned' county, so it was a real find.
3. There are two parts to the issue. Military records themselves do not record marriage dates in either the US or Canada (can't speak for the rest of the world). But if your grandfather received either a military pension or a military disability pay, then the date of marriage would be recorded if it was requested after 1946. The other ways to find the date (and much cheaper) are 1. contact the Clerk of the Court in the county where they lived and see if the marriage license was filed there. In most states, you have to get the marriage license in the county where you live, even if you're married in another county. Obviously this won't help if they eloped to Reno, but most people in that era didn't go to such lengths. 2. If your grandmother outlived your grandfather, she probably drew survivor benefits on both his pension and his Social Security. Both you and your father are legal heirs, so either of you can request the records from the pension company and the Social Security Administration. Personally, I'd start with a simple phone call to the Clerk of the Court asking if they have a record of the marriage. Simply enough, tell them it's a genealogy project and that you don't want to waste their time processing a letter if they don't have the record. Unless you're calling Wayne County in Michigan, they'll usually give you a "yes" or "no" over the phone. If they have it, then get the cost for a non-certified copy (cheaper and just as good as the one with the embossed stamp). Also ask if they will send you both a non-certified copy of the marriage license, plus a copy of the marriage license APPLICATION. In most states, there's more information on the application than you'll find on the license itself. Hope it helps...happy hunting.
4. I have only dealt with Canaian and British records, so that's all I can speak for, but I have found it's a mixed bag depending on which records have survived. On some British WW1 records there is a section entitled 'details of marriage' where the marriage date has been written in, but this is the case in only a small number of the records I have. If you are looking for records in the UK, you can use this site to find marriages pre 1920(ish) http://www.freebmd.org.uk