The very first “marriage license” issued in Indiana was in 1914. Obviously people married in Indiana prior to 1914. People were married in 1913 and 14 with no state marriage license and remained married without such a license (we are safe to assume, if married at age 20) into the 1970s and even into the 1980s.
It is safe to assume that as late as 1970 and after, there were still very many married couples in Indiana whose marriages would today be called “common law,” “illegitimate,” “just living together,” “living in sin,” and so forth.
The difference, historically, is this. Prior to 1914, the churches were the repository of marriage records, and not the county courthouses. The churches issued marriage certificates that were recognized by anyone, and the church clerks or other officers kept the records of the marriage procedure. And I read that the most important records of marriages in those days were those found in such places as the family Bible. But that was a day when people made vows of holy matrimony and those vows actually meant something (e.g. Ecclesiastes 5:4-6).
One of our daughters married in 2006, and I did some research at our county courthouse. I pored over the applications for a marriage license, and studied the Indiana State laws regarding the license itself. I have rarely read anything more vague. I later discovered that the vagueness was deliberate on the part of the Indiana State Legislature in 1914.
I went to the courthouse and asked the clerk some questions:
(1.) What are the qualifications of a Christian minister required to officiate weddings and sign the paperwork. ANSWER: Being approved by one's church is all.
(2.) Do you mean that if I want to officiate my daughter's wedding, I need to show no proof of ordination or other documents? ANSWER: No, just be acknowledged by your church as the one to officiate the wedding?
(3.) Are there any minimal procedures for a ceremony, vows, affirmations, anything? ANSWER: No, nothing is required by the law; no ceremony is actually required at all. The state requires no couples being wed to make any vows of matrimony or promises one to another in the least.
(4.) If I sign the paperwork, how does the County or State know that the church has approved me? ANSWER: Neither the county nor the state knows who is approved by the churches, and they will never know unless their is, for some reason, brought forward a court challenge to the marriage procedure in any given marriage. The state will not check the signature or the position of the person officiating a wedding, unless their are, for example, charges of fraud brought forward.
By this point, a man in a suit walked in to the clerks office and was signing some papers. He began to pay attention to my questions and walked closer to us. He was a circuit judge, but I didn't know it at that moment. I went on with my next question to the clerk.
(5.) I stated, the license application doesn't seem to be directed at all to the couple to be wed, but, instead, to the person officiating the wedding.
At that point, the judge interrupted us and asked if he could answer my questions. He introduced himself. I was elated!
He began to explain that technically, Indiana still does not license marriages, per se, but issues (and remember this is a technicality) a TEMPORARY license of 60 days for the marriage to be officiated, and that is all. The conditions of the license are not specific to the couple to be wed, but to the one who will officiate, whether he be a minister or a public official of some kind (including a judge). And those conditions are deliberately left very vague.
Say, a marriage license is issued on June 1. That license expires by August 1. If the marriage is never officiated, the license expires by August 1. But listen! If the marriage takes place, the license STILL expires by August 1. The validity of the license ends in ANY and ALL cases in 60 days, marriage or no marriage. If you are married longer than 60 days in Indiana, you have NO marriage license!
That which is on file at the courthouse is NOT a license, but simply a “Marriage Record,” stating that a marriage had in fact taken place. The license itself did “sunset” in 60 days from its issue.
Further, explained the circuit judge, some “religious societies” are exempted altogether. One such is the Friends, or Quakers. They don't have to do anything at the courthouse at all. The Friends are specifically named as an example in the state Constitution. And so under the equal protection clause of the Indiana State Constitution, any church that keeps ITS OWN records of officiating marriages would have to be considered exempt, as well, if they so state their objection to their ministers applying for licensure.
Anyway, I thought some would be interested in these things.
That’s extremely interesting. Thank you!
I mentioned marriage in my post because that’s the only “ceremony” of those mentioned in the article that could be considered “valid” or “invalid.” There’s legally valid - does your state consider you married? - and then there’s “valid” according to one’s particular religious group.
“Birth ceremonies,” “death ceremonies,” etc. Valid? Whatever kind of “ceremony” is held, the person’s either been born, or died, or not!
That is interesting. Thanks for sharing that.