Instructions concerning the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Massachusetts : designed for town clerks and physicians / by Oliver Warner.

  • Oliver Warner
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Instructions concerning the registration of births, marriages and deaths in Massachusetts : designed for town clerks and physicians / by Oliver Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    often prove of incalculable benefit to the parties married and to their prospective offspring, the protection of whose interests was the main object of the statutory provisions; while injustice to innocent parties may result from failure or delay of those before whom marriages are solemnized, to make proper returns of the same. Of Parties Living in the State and Marrying out of it. ERRATUM. Page 10, line 21—strike out the words, no Certificate of intention is requisite, and insert a Certificate of intention is now required by Chap. 58 of the Acts of the year 1867. [Chapter 58.] An Act relating to the Marriage of Non-resident Parties. Section 1. Persons living without the Commonwealth and intending to be joined in marriage within the Commonwealth, shall, before their marriage, cause notice of their inten- tion to be entered in the office of the clerk or registrar,of the city or town in which they propose to have the marriage solemnized ; and no marriage between such parties shall be solemnized until they have delivered to the justice of the peace, or minister in whose presence the marriage is to be contracted, a certificate from such clerk or registrar, specifying the time when notice of the intention of marriage was entered with him, together with all the facts in relation to the marriage required bj' law to be ascertained and recorded, except those respecting the person by whom the marriage is to be solemnized. Section 2. Marriages may be solemnized by a justice of the peace in the county for %rhich he is appointed. Section 3. A justice of the peace or minister who joins persons in marriage contrary to the provisions of this act shall forfeit not less than fifty, nor more than one hundred dollars. \_AppTmed March 11,1867.] eveni, xim. tneevenTirself sTiouWnever escape vnnoticed. Other- wise, the returns will possess, for statistical purposes, but little value. Concerning Inquiries to be made for Births. In obtaining the information required by law respecting Birihs, not previously reported by parents, undertakers, or others, it has been customary for the Town Clerk once—siiid in certain of the larger places tivice—in each year, either personally or by agent, to make inquiries from house to house concerning the children born since the time when the last previous inquiries- were made. The continuation of this practice cannot be too earnestly recom- mended, as no other method is equally effective. (The law making the return of Births the duty of physicians, having upon trial been found unsatisfactory, has been repealed.)