Today’s Follow Friday is a new (to me) database: the Minnesota Official Marriage System or MOMS.

This is a nice complement to the Minnesota Birth Certificates Index and the Minnesota Death Certificates Index maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society and the other Minnesota vital records databases at FamilySearch.

About the source information for the data on the Minnesota Official Marriage System:

1. Each county is responsible for its data and authentic records.

2. Most counties have current and historical data available on this site.

3. Record volumes by county dictate how the current index is organized.

4. Users may request marriage certificates directly from the custodial county.

5. Counties are not required to submit data to MOMS. If you have questions about a specific county, contact the Local Vital Record’s Office or County Administration for that county.

6. Marriage records are classified as public data pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, Chapters 13 and 517.

7. A minor is emancipated when a parent and judge sign to allow the minor to marry.

It’s only been up since March of 2010 and not all records for every county are available, but it looks good, particularly for 20th century records. I don’t have many relatives in Minnesota, but this is good to have in my back pocket.

But my mainstay still is the Minnesota Marriages database at FamilySearch. I found a Minnesota marriage that was right under my nose there: Mary Schumann and Christian Gross are married on 28 Feb 1893 at St Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota. Yay!