OUR MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS. 227 



ant, unless the court in which the judgment of divorce was rendered 

 shall modify such judgment on satisfactory proof that the complain- 

 ant has remarried, that five years have elapsed since the divorce was 

 granted, and that the conduct of the defendant since the dissolution of 

 the marriage has been uniformly good. 



No formality is necessary for the solemnization of marriages in New 

 York. But, for the purpose of being registered and authenticated, the 

 statute provides that marriages may be solemnized by ministers of the 

 gospel and priests ; and when solemnized by them the ceremony must 

 be according to the forms and customs of the church or society to 

 which they belong. Marriages may also be solemnized by mayors, 

 recorders, and aldermen of cities, judges of the county court, justices 

 of the peace, and by justices and judges of courts of record. When 

 solemnized by a magistrate, no particular form is required, except that 

 the parties shall declare in the presence of the magistrate and attend- 

 ing witnesses that they take each other for husband and wife. It is 

 the duty of the officiating minister or magistrate to enter the names, 

 ages, and residences of the parties, and the witnesses to the marriage, 

 in a book to be kept for that purpose, and he shall upon application 

 furnish to the parties a certificate of such marriage. This certificate, 

 if presented to the clerk of the city or town where the marriage was 

 solemnized, or where either of the parties resides, shall be filed by such 

 clerk and entered in a book. The entry, or a certified copy thereof, 

 or the marriage certificate, shall be received as evidence of such 

 marriage. The provisions of the law regulating the solemnization of 

 marriages, however, do not apply to the people called Quakers, nor 

 to Jews, who are married according to the regulations of their respec- 

 tive churches. 



In Connecticut the statute declares that no man shall marry his 

 mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, niece, 

 step-mother or step-daughter ; that no woman shall marry her father, 

 grandfather, son, grandson, brother, uncle, nephew, step-father, or step- 

 son ; and that, if any man or woman shall marry within the degrees 

 aforesaid, such marriage shall be void. It provides further that no 

 persons shall be married until one of them shall inform the register of 

 the town, or the town-clerk, in which the marriage is to be celebrated, 

 of the name, age, color, occupation, birthplace, residence, and con- 

 dition whether single, widowed, or divorced of each. Such regis- 

 ter, or town-clerk, shall thereupon issue his certificate that the parties 

 therein named have complied with the law, which certificate shall be 

 a license for any person authorized to solemnize marriages to give in 

 marriage, in said town only, the parties therein named ; but no such 

 certificate shall be issued if either of the parties is a minor, under the 

 control of a parent or a guardian, until such parent or guardian shall 

 give to the register, or town-clerk, his written consent ; and any regis- 

 ter, or town-clerk, who shall knowingly issue such certificate without 



