Starting May 1, the Tazewell County Clerk's Office will offer certified marriage license copies online.
The office is the first in Illinois, and among the first in the U.S., to offer the service, according to County Clerk John Ackerman.
"So if you've been married in Tazewell County, you can pull up an e-certified document for your marriage license for various purposes. Insurance purposes, IDs for Social Security, ID's for driver's license bureau. So that way, you wouldn't have to come into our office, said Dan Sullivan, Tazewell County's chief deputy clerk.
Currently, e-certify is available just for marriage licenses, but there are also plans to offer it for birth certificates eventually.
Sullivan said it's a beneficial service to offer in the current pandemic environment, because it eliminates the need to travel to the clerk's office in Pekin in-person.
"Corona[virus] is still alive and well, unfortunately, in our community and nationwide," Sullivan said. "So this is something that will benefit if you live here in Tazewell County, or if you live in California. If you've been married or born here in Tazewell, you will be able to pull up these documents."
Sullivan says the clerk's office expects to eventually save on its paper costs through the e-certify process. County Clerk John Ackerman says no additional taxpayer funds were spent on the program.
The E-certify program works through Triedata's software, which is currently in use throughout Florida and Oklahoma.
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