Before you get married, you need to apply for a marriage license. In most states, you need to apply for it several days, and sometimes more than a month, in advance of the ceremony. However, the marriage license isn’t just a legal hoop that the state makes you jump through so that they can collect a fee from you on your way down the altar.

Marriage licenses records provide cities and states with a way to verify that marriages in their states are legal and to verify populations for census purposes. They are most definitely recorded, not just tucked away in a drawer somewhere. In fact, many of them are immediately scanned and made available online as a part of the public records of the state in which you live.

Marriage licenses records can also be used by couples as a way of providing a quick background check on the other person. You can look online in a matter of minutes and find out if someone is lying to you about their marital status. There are a number of agencies that can also help you look into sealed records or other divorce filings to get the real story on a future lover’s history. With all the horror stories on the news these days, it’s only prudent to look.

More innocently, marriage licenses records also serve as a tool for people seeking to track their family history. Marriage records go back for generations, and can help families that have grown apart grow back together again. They show patterns of children and moves that are invaluable to a research, and that also help provide color to fill in gaps for adoptees or orphans. Thus, the marriage license is a valuable record that is worth filling out accurately and completely . . . and even paying for so that it is properly recorded.