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From:
Subject: Re: [TGF] Illinois Marriage question
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:36:14 EST


It actually was a statewide change that impacted all the counties--it was
also the year the counties started recording births and deaths (admittedly
not at an overly high compliance in the early years). Cook County didn't use
the marriage returns with parents names and places of birth at that time,
but there was vital records legislation in Illinois that instituted changes
in 1877. I would be very interested to see returns with parental
information before that date. I always take what the clerks say with a grain of
salt.

Sometimes there is a separate marriage volume that abstracts what was
provided by the bride and groom on the application after they started asking the
more detailed questions. This volume is separate from the register. It can
be helpful when licenses are missing or when it is cost prohibitive to
obtain copies of multiple licenses.

One of the more interesting licenses I've seen was for a Swedish immigrant
who married in Knox County, Illinois, in the 1880s. He was under the age of
consent and his parents lived in Sweden. The court appointed a local Swede
"of age" to be his guardian for the sole purpose of providing consent for
the marriage.

Michael
_www.casefileclues.com_ (http://www.casefileclues.com)


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