Searching for and Ordering a Marriage Certificate in Lithuania

Since 01 January 2017, civil registry offices of the Republic of Lithuania commenced to issue extracts confirming the record of civil status in a form determined by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania instead of registration certificates of the record of civil status. Extracts may be issued upon a receipt of the petitioner’s application immediately after registration of the civil status act (right away after the conclusion of marriage) or anytime later at the civil registry office, consular post, or the Centre of Registers. This procedure is valid not only for registration of marriages, but also in the cases of divorce, birth, death, and change of a name or surname.

Searches for extracts confirming the record of marriage of the persons married before 1940 are carried out in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, situated at Mindaugo St. 8, Vilnius. Metrics books of all religious communities and churches are stored here. It has to be noted that, depending on the locality and the church, even though the books kept in this Archives date back even to the 16^th century, not all of them are preserved. Since the Catholic belief was predominant in Lithuania, the RKB metrics books are the most preserved, and the Jewish metrics funds are also numerous. Only few of metrics books of Orthodox, Old Believers, Evangelical Lutheran, Evangelical Reformers, Muslim, or Karaite have remained.

When carrying out a search for a record of marriage in metrics books and seeking for the best search results, it is vitally important to specify the parish and religion of the married couple. If such information is missing, a search may be started from a place of birth of a bride, since the matrimonial ceremony in those days usually took place in the bride’s parish. It is worth mentioning that separate applications must be submitted to the Lithuanian State Historical Archives for a review and search in books of each parish separately.

When applying for a search the following should be detailed: names, surnames of the married couple, date of marriage (or year of marriage), place of marriage, religious community, or faith (if known).

Processing an application in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives is optionally available in order of precedence (approximately per month), within 10 working days, or within 5 working days.

Records certifying the marriage act of the persons married after 1940 are stored at the Archives of the Civil Registry Division. An application may be filed to the Archives of the Civil Registry Division of Vilnius City, located at address K. Kalinausko St. 21, Vilnius, also, to the State Enterprise Centre of Registers or a consular post.

When applying the following details should be specified: names, surnames of the persons, date (or year) and place of marriage conclusion.

Extracts confirming the record of marriage of the relatives (spouse, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents) are issued only with their consent or upon their death. In such a case the hereunder mentioned documents shall be additionally provided with an application:

• Person’s consent or death certificate;
• Documents proving kinship (birth certificate (certificates), marriage certificate, documents of change of a name and/or surname).

Applications are processed in the Archives of the Civil Registry Division in order of precedence (usually up to one month).

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