MyHeritage Publishes Millions of Exclusive Marriage Records From North Rhine-Westphalia

We are pleased to announce the addition of an exclusive collection of marriage certificates from North Rhine-Westphalia from 1874 to 1899. This unique collection is provided by the Landesarchiv NRW, comprising almost 4 million searchable individuals. The collection contains excellent scanned images of the original records. 

Search Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia – Münster, Detmold, and Arnsberg Marriages, 1874-1899

MyHeritage is the first company to have fully indexed these images. As a result, this information is more accessible and easier to search than ever before. This collection is an important resource for anyone interested in learning more about their North Rhine-Westphalian roots. The collection presently features marriage certificates exclusively from the districts of Münster, Detmold, and Arnsberg. We hope to expand our collection soon by adding certificates from Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Civil registers are an excellent source of genealogical information. They are kept by the civil registrar, cover 98% of the population and have been mandatory in all German federal states since 1876.

Marriage certificates are important documents that are issued as part of a marriage and serve as official proof of the marriage. A marriage certificate usually contains information about the spouses, such as names, dates and places of birth, occupations and addresses. It also lists the date and place of the wedding ceremony as well as the names and signatures of the witnesses. The certificate is issued by the registry office where the marriage was registered. In Germany, a civil marriage is required by law for a legally valid marriage.

Marriage certificates are valuable documents for family research, as they show connections between different family lines and ancestors. They help genealogists to document family relationships and research family history.

Example

In this collection we have found the marriage certificate of Carl Miele. In 1899, he co-founded the company Miele & Cie, which later became Miele, a well-known German manufacturer of high-quality household appliances. 

Miele was innovative in product development, introduced new technologies and successfully marketed its products through effective advertising. One notable achievement was the development of the first electric domestic dishwasher in Europe in 1929.

Carl Christof Miele married Maria Catharina (born Zuwickern) on April 21st 1896 in Herzebrock-Clarholz, Germany. The witnesses to the marriage were Bernard Hagemeier and Johannes Menne.

On the top right of the marriage record, there’s a handwritten note by the chief clerk of Justice that gives us even more information. This note provides additional details about Maria Miele’s death, including the date and the location of her death record.

Summary

We hope that this valuable collection will help you make new discoveries in your family history. Searching the collections on MyHeritage is free. To view the records or to save records to your family tree, you will need a data or complete subscription.

If you have a family tree on MyHeritage, our record matching technology will automatically notify you when records from these collections match your relatives. You can then review the record and decide if you want to add the new information to your family tree.

Enjoy the new collection!