In order to search for marriage records in Israel, it is important to keep in mind that the original scans containing the copies of the marriage certificates are located in the Israel State Archives (ISA). The same scans can also be found on the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) website, but on this website, the search option offers fewer fields to filter by.
Searching Israeli marriage records on IGRA
It is recommended to search for marriage records first on the IGRA website. As previously mentioned, IGRA is in the process of transcribing and publishing over 100,000 copies of marriage records kept by the ISA. Therefore, there is a chance that the article intended has already been transcribed and appears online.
The website allows for searching both in English and in Hebrew. However, since the marriage certificates are entirely in Hebrew, and the transcription was also made in English, some surnames may appear transliterated differently; for example, searching for the surname Abramovici (Romanian spelling) may generate results for Abramovich, Abramovics, Abramowitz or Abramowicz, while in Hebrew all the results appear as אברמוביץ. The same can also happen when searching for Goldsztejn (Polish spelling) as it might return Goldstein, for example. First names could also be indexed differently than expected. For example, the name משה (Moshe) can appear as Moishe, Moszek, Mojsze, Mojzesz, Mojsej, Moises, Moise, Mose, Musa, or any other spelling that exists for the same name. This is why it is recommended to check the boxes in the search form to allow searching for phonetic matches instead of exact matches, which will eliminate the worry of being completely sure about the spelling of the name of one ancestor.
In this collection, it is possible to search by the name of the groom, the bride or any of their parents. As there is no option at the moment to search per collection on the IGRA website, all the results will be listed from the entire IGRA database, like immigration, census, election, telephone records, and others. After scrolling down through the results the name searched will appear under the collection title “Marriages and Divorces 1921-1948 British Palestine.”
The marriage certificates in this collection will be titled “Groom/bride full-name, son/daughter of NN (parents' names), husband/wife of NN (spouse first-name).” Sometimes the search results may be too numerous; searching for the collection title, whenever possible, allows for a more efficient search. Once the desired marriage record has been located, clicking on “Details” will trigger a pop-up window with a partial list of the details that appear on the record; the list of details is in English, while the information is in Hebrew. The list is partial since it does not include the surname and age of the spouse, and also lacks details about the spouse’s parents, which will only appear by searching for the bride’s name in the search engine.
When scrolling down on this pop-up window, it is possible to see more from the partial list of details, and the record itself. At the bottom, an option to download the image is available.
Searching Israeli marriage records on ISA
If a specific marriage certificate can't be found, it could be due to different reasons:
- The record hasn't been transcribed yet
- The names/surnames of the bride and groom are spelled differently
- The bridal couple may have Hebraized their original surnames, which was common until the 1980s.
- There's no copy of that specific marriage certificate
However, before reaching the fourth conclusion, it would be wise to search for that specific record in the Israel State Archives, the holder of the original copies. This can be done by visiting the ISA website and writing “marriage certificates” in Hebrew on the search bar, and adding the name of the city or town, where the wedding was supposed to have taken place.
For example, when looking for the original copy of Yosef Gluzman’s marriage certificate, since it is known it took place in Herzliya, it is recommended to write “marriage certificates Herzeliyya” in the search engine of the ISA, and press ENTER. In this case, the first two results contain marriage certificates from Herzliyya, however, the first one only has certificates from 1928 to 1939, while the second one contains documents from 1947 to 1950. In this particular case, the second one is the record needed, as it is known that Yosef Gluzman got married in 1948.
There are 230 scanned pages in this file that contain around 100 marriage certificates, which are arranged by number. In order to find the original copy of Yosef Gluzman’s marriage certificate, it is necessary to check the number on the certificate that appears on the IGRA website. The number of the marriage certificates appears on the top right corner of the document, and in this case, the number is 102065.
After verifying the number of the certificate, it is possible to scroll faster through the 230 scanned pages until that number is finally found, which corresponds to the same marriage certificate needed, with the only difference that since this is an original copy, it will not have the IGRA watermark that appears in the background of the one found originally saw in their website. In case the find the marriage certificate in IGRA can't be found and thus don’t know its number, the only remaining option is to go through all the scanned pages that appear in ISA, one by one. The original copies can be downloaded as a PDF file, together with all 230 scans of the same file.
See also
Search your family in the Marriage & Divorce collections at MyHeritage
Explore more
- Marriage records on MyHeritage
- Israeli records on MyHeritage
- Vital Records: How to Find Birth, Marriage & Death Records: article on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base