who created marriage license and other info needed

[digdug75]

I have been searching and searching for information of laws created by state to require marriage license and who wrote the laws and what parties were involved. Anybody with references to documented proof or how I can easily obtain such proof would be greatly appreciated.

I have also had the most difficult time finding information on this "Uniform Marriage and Marriage License Act" of either 1923,1926 or 1929. An documentation would be greatly appreciated.

I am tired of dealing with this same sex marriage issue! I would like to see the history on how federal government and state's were able to gain control over marriage and which parties were involved!

I am looking for facts, dates, political parties involved, and people who wrote the laws involving all state marriage license laws! I think I prefer no government involvement of marriage!

[A Random Phrase]

bump

I would be interested in reading replies to this request.

[scottja]

Lots to be found with Wikipedia and Google, at least things which could be fact checked and cross -referenced.

This is a good read.

http://macquirelatory.com/Marriage%20Li ... 0Truth.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gkearney]

OK my history degree and library science background finally comes in handy...

A very short history of marriage licences.

For most of human history marriage was a private religious and family matter. Marriages were, by and large, arrange by the families and love and romance had very little to do with it. The idea of a marriage licenses as we think of then originated in the 16th century with the church as a means of ensuring that both parties to the marriage were indeed not married to another party which would create problems in a situation where marriages were viewed more in family economic terms. So the church authorities would issues a license to be married to each party to the marriage then the priest would perform the rite. This was done as the priest might not know the parties/families involved. Think of the royal families of Europe and their marriages which were more like modern treaties than marriages as we think of them.

In England and some other nations there was the idea of Common Law Marriage. That is where a couple live together for a period of time and or have children. These were an effort to afford legal protections to children and for settling matter of probate. This worked well in an age where people seldom move far from the village where they were raised and everyone knew them. At that point they are considered to be married. This was very common in colonial America where there were few "state" churches. A few states, including Utah, still have this form of marriage where no licenses are involved.

Some of the American colonies however did have state churches in particular Massachusetts, Church of Christ (Puritan) and North Carolina, Anglican. In such cases the church issued marriage licenses became de facto state issued ones and the states took over the practice. It is interesting to note that this did not always follow as new states were created. For example while Tennessee kept the practice of state issued marriage licenses when it separated from North Carolina, Maine rejected the practice when it separated from Massachusetts in 1820 and would not issue marriage licenses until the 1880's.

The impetus for state issued marriage licenses come from the radical Republican reformers whose platform was to remove from the United States the "...twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." [Republican Platform of 1856, Philadelphia June 17-19, 1856] so it is that we Latter-day Saints play a role, all be it and unwitting one, in the introduction of government issued marriage licenses into American life. The idea of these licenses spread quickly to all the states and territories of the union following the Civil War [1861-1865]. It was implemented by congress in the Utah Territory in part to eliminate that "relics of barbarism, polygamy" as the record could be used in court proceedings against polygamists.

There are some interesting sidelights to the issues here, for example most states require an officiant to perform a marriage but not all, Maine, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and perhaps some other states permit the couple themselves to sign the certification of marriage. This is done to accommodate the Quakers who do not have, or believe in, ministers performing marriages, In the Quaker tradition marriage is between the couple and God.

So there you have it, marriage licenses started out as church issued documents and over time became state issued ones, this was at a time when the church and the state/crown were one in the same thing. In America the rise of marriage licenses really took hold in the years following the Civil War and were driven by the progressive Republican movement of that time. This is is the same movement that introduced such things as prohibition, elimination of child labour, abolition of slavery, compulsory education and other features of the mid to late 19th century. In particular state issued marriage licenses were directed at the elimination of polygamy which was a mainstay of Republican platforms of the period.

[A Random Phrase]

Thanks, I appreciate the information.

[A Random Phrase]

Lots to be found with Wikipedia and Google, at least things which could be fact checked and cross -referenced.

This is a good read.

http://macquirelatory.com/Marriage%20Li ... 0Truth.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow! A felony to marry someone a little darker or lighter than your own skin.

Miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes interracial sex between whites and blacks. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed as "miscegenation. In North America, laws against interracial marriage and interracial sex existed and were enforced in the Thirteen Colonies from the late seventeenth century onwards, and subsequently in several US states and US territories until 1967. In the United States, miscegenation laws were state laws passed by individual states to prohibit miscegenation, nowadays more commonly referred to as interracial marriage and interracial sex. Typically defining miscegenation as a felony, yes, felony, and these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies.

[Durzan]

This is why state-sponsored marriage is a blight upon the world and the gospel: it inhibits the freedom of the people. Marriage liscenses should be abolished. It is not the government’s business whom I marry.

[Craig Johnson]

Did George Washington get in trouble for having sex with his slaves or was rape of slaves allowed, or did these laws postdate his life?

[Vision]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds–Tucker_Act

Good information here.