Records of Marriages. 7B 



RECORDS OF MARRIAGES. 



BY REV. F. M. HOLLAND, A. M., BARAEOO. 



Records of marriages are primarily designed to furnish 

 proofs of the fact, but they might also be adapted to giving 

 valuable statistical information. The present method of mak- 

 ing such records in Wisconsin seems capable of improve- 

 ment in both respects. 



Whoever solemnizes marriage in this state is required to 

 deposit with the county register of deeds, a certificate stating 

 the time and place of marriage, the full names of both parties 

 and of their parents, and also the occupation and place of 

 birth and residence of the man, though not of the woman. 

 Probably the legislators thought that women did not have any 

 occupations, but it rather looks as if they were beginning to 

 have some, to say the least. Women certainly have places of 

 residence, and also of birth, the record of which latter might 

 much assist the student of statistics by informing him which 

 portion of the marriages are between foreigners, what between 

 native-born Americans, and what between an American and a 

 foreigner. Such a record would also become much more val- 

 uable as legal proof. 



Both objects would be yet more promoted by inserting 

 what has been wholly ovei looked, but is peculiarly needed for 

 both legal and statistical investigations, namely a record oi age. 

 This would plainly assist identification. Social science, also, 

 needs to know whether our people marry earlier or later in 

 seasons of unusual prosperity or adversity, and also what oc- 

 cupations and nationalities are most prone to early matrimony. 

 The question whether the American, or rather Anglo-Ameri- 

 can, race is dying out would be much enlightened. 

 6 



