APPENDIX.

LAWS

CONCERNING THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.

[General Statutes-Chapter 21.]

OF THE REGISTRY AND RETURNS OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.

SECTION

1. City and Town Clerks to obtain, record, and index certain facts concerning Births, Marriages, and Deaths.

2. Parents and others to give notice of Births, and Deaths.

3. Physicians to give Certificate of Cause of Death, when requested. Penalty.

4. Town Clerk to give Certificate of Registry of Death to the Person having charge of funeral rites preliminary to Interment, who shall deliver the same to the Person having charge of the Interment. No interment to

SECTION

6. Record or Certificate of Clerk to be prima facie evidence in Legal Proceedings.

7. Clerks-Fees of, payable by City or Town; Accounts of, to be certified by Secretary. Penalty for non-performance of duty.

8. Superintendents of State Almshouses to obtain, record and return to Secretary, births and deaths. Town clerks exempt.

9. Secretary to return Blank Books and Forms for returns, with Instructions and Explanations. Clerks to distribute the Blank Forms for Returns.

&c.; to Report to Legislature, &c.; to do all other acts necessary.

take place without such certificate. Penalty, 10. Secretary,-to cause Returns to be bound, if interment be without Certificate, and if notice be not forth with given, twenty dollars. 5. Clerk annually to transmit certified Copies 11. Registrars may be chosen, in certain cases, in of Record to Secretary. place of Town Clerks.

SECTION 1. The clerk of each city and town shall receive or obtain, and record, and index, the following facts concerning the births, marriages, and deaths, therein, separately numbering and recording the same in the order in which he receives them, designated in separate columns:

In the record of births, the date of the birth, the place of birth, the name of the child, (if he have any,) the sex and color of the child, the names and the places of birth of the parents, the occupation of the father, the residence of the parents, and the date of the record;

In the record of marriages, the date of the marriage, the place of marriage, the name, residence, and official station of, the person by whom married, the names and places of birth of the parties, the residence of each, the age and color of each, the condition of each, (whether single or widowed,) the occupation, the names of the parents, and the date of the record;

In the record of deaths, the date of the death, the name of the deceased, the sex, the color, the condition, (whether single, widowed, or married,) the age, the residence, the occupation, the place of death, the place of birth, the names and places of birth of the parents, the disease or cause of death, the place of burial, and the date of the record.

SECTION 2. Parents shall give notice to the clerk of their city or town of the births and deaths of their children; every householder shall give

like notice of every birth and death happening in his house; the eldest person next of kin shall give such notice of the death of his kindred; the keeper of a workhouse, house of correction, prison, hospital, or almshouse, except the State almshouses at Tewksbury, Bridgewater, and Monson, and the master or other commanding officer of any ship shall give like notice of every birth and death happening among the persons under his charge. Whoever neglects to give such notice for the space of six months after a birth or death, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding five dollars.

SECTION 3. Any physician having attended a person during his last illness, shall-when requested within fifteen days after the decease of such person-forthwith furnish for registration a certificate of the duration of the last sickness, the disease of which the person died, and the date of his decease, as nearly as he can state the same. If any physician refuses or neglects to make such certificate, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten dollars to the use of the town in which he resides.

SECTION 4. Every sexton, undertaker, or other person having charge of a burial-ground, or the superintendent of burials having charge of the obsequies or funeral rites preliminary to the interment of a human body, ⚫ shall forthwith obtain and return to the clerk of the city or town in which the deceased resided or the death occurred, the facts required by this chapter to be recorded by said officer concerning the deceased, and the person making such return shall receive from his city or town the fee of ten cents therefor.

The clerk, upon recording such facts, shall forthwith give to the person making such return, a certificate that such return has been made, which certificate such person shall deliver to the person having charge of the interment, if other than himself, before the burial when practicable, otherwise within seven days thereafter. When a burial takes place and no certificate is delivered as aforesaid, the sexton, undertaker, or other person having charge of the interment, shall forthwith give notice thereof to the clerk under penalty of twenty dollars.

SECTION 5. The clerk of each city and town shall annually on or before the first day of February, transmit to the secretary of the Commonwealth, certified copies of the records of the births, marriages, and deaths, which have occurred therein during the year ending on the last day of the preceding December.

SECTION 6. The record of the town clerk relative to any birth, marriage, or death, shall be primâ facie evidence, in legal proceedings, of the facts recorded. The certificate signed by the town clerk for the time being shall be admissible as evidence of any such record.

SECTION 7. The clerk shall receive from his city or town for obtaining, recording, indexing, and returning to the secretary of the Commonwealth, the facts in relation to a birth, twenty cents; a marriage, ten cents; a death, twenty cents for each of the first twenty entries, and ten cents for each subsequent entry, as the same shall be certified by the secretary of the Commonwealth; but a city or town containing more than ten thousand inhabitants may limit the aggregate compensation allowed to their clerk. He shall forfeit a sum not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars for each refusal or neglect to perform any duty required of him by this chapter.

SECTION 8. The superintendents of the State almshouses at Tewksbury, Bridgewater, and Monson, shall obtain, record, and make return of

the facts in relation to the births and deaths which occur in their respective institutions, in like manner as is required of town clerks. The clerks of said towns shall, in relation to the births and deaths of persons in said almshouses, be exempt from the duties otherwise required of them by this chapter.

SECTION 9. The secretary shall, at the expense of the Commonwealth, prepare and furnish to the clerks of the several cities and towns, and to the superintendents of the State almshouses, blank books of suitable quality and size to be used as books of record under this chapter, blank books for indexes thereto, and blank forms for returns, on paper of uniform size; and shall accompany the same with such instructions and explanations as may be necessary and useful. City and town clerks shall make such distribution of blank forms of returns furnished by the secretary as he shall direct.

SECTION 10. The secretary shall cause the returns received by him for each year to be bound together in one or more volumes with indexes thereto. He shall prepare from the returns such tabular results as will render them of practical utility, make report thereof annually to the legislature, and do all other acts necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this chapter.

SECTION 11. Any city or town containing more than ten thousand inhabitants, may choose a person other than the clerk to be registrar, who shall be sworn, and to whom all the provisions of this chapter concerning clerks shall apply. The returns and notices required to be made and given to clerks shall be made and given to such registrar under like penalties.

SECTION 12. The secretary of this Commonwealth shall prosecute, by an action of tort, in the name of the Commonwealth, for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture imposed by this chapter.

SECTION 13. Any city or town may make rules and regulations to enforce the provisions of this chapter, or to secure a more perfect registration of births, marriages, and deaths, therein.

SECTION

[General Statutes-Chapter 106.]

OF MARRIAGE.

7. Notice of Intention of Marriage to be entered with Town Clerk.

8. Certificate of Record of Intention to be given to Parties by Clerk. Such certificate to be delivered to Person before whom Marriage is to be solemnized.

9. Certificate not to issue to certain Minors, except on application of Parent, &c. Penalty.

10. Clerk may require Affidavit of Age.
11. Penalty for making False Statement.

12. Parties living in State and Married out of it,
to file certificate on return. Penalty.
13. No Person to solemnize Marriage of a Minor,
without consent of Parents, if any in the
State competent to act.

SECTION

14. Marriages, by Whom to be solemnized, and in what Place.

15. Marriages among Quakers.

16. Persons solemnizing Marriage to keep Record and to make Returns to certain Town Clerks. Clerk to record all Marriages 80 returned.

17. Penalty for not making Returns.

18. Penalty for solemnizing a Marriage unlawfully.

19. Penalty, on Person not authorized to Marry. 21. Record of Marriage, or certified copy thereof, presumptive evidence of Marriage.

SECTIONS 1, 2 and 3. [Marriage between certain relatives prohibited.] SECTION 4. [Polygamy forbidden.]

SECTION 5. Marriage contracted by insane persons or idiots, void.] SECTION 6. [Marriages of persons marrying out of the State in order to evade, &c., void.].

SECTION 7. Persons intending to be joined in marriage, shall, before their marriage cause notice thereof to be entered in the office of the clerk, or registrar of the city or town in which they respectively dwell, if within the State. If there is no such clerk or registrar in the place of their residence, the entry shall be made in an adjoining city or town.

SECTION 8. The clerk or registrar shall deliver to the parties a certificate under his hand, specifying the time when notice of the intention of marriage was entered with him, together with all facts in relation to the marriage required by law to be ascertained and recorded, except those respecting the person by whom the marriage is to be solemnized. Such certificate shall be delivered to the minister or magistrate in whose presence the marriage is to be contracted, before he proceeds to solemnize the same. SECTION 9. If a clerk or registrar issues such certificate to a male under the age of twenty-one years, or a female under the age of eighteen years, having reasonable cause to suppose the person to be under such age, except upon the application or consent in writing of the parent, master, or guardian, of such person, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars; but if there is no parent, master, or guardian, in this State, competent to act, a certificate may be issued without such application or consent. SECTION 10. The clerk or registrar may require of any person applying for such certificate, an affidavit sworn to before a justice of the peace for the county where the application is made, setting forth the age of the parties; which affidavit shall be sufficient proof of age to authorize the issuing of the certificate.

SECTION 11. Whoever applying for such certificate wilfully makes a false statement in relation to the age or residence, parent, master, or guardian, of either of the parties intending marriage, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars.

SECTION 12. When a marriage is solemnized in another State between parties living in this State, and they return to dwell here, they shall, within seven days after their return, file with the clerk or registrar of the city or town, where either of them lived at the time, a certificate or declaration of their marriage, including the facts concerning marriages required by law, and for every neglect they shall forfeit ten dollars.

SECTION 13. No magistrate or minister shall solemnize a marriage, having reasonable cause to suppose either of the parties to be under the age mentioned in section nine, without the consent of the parent or guardian having the custody of the minor, if there is any in the State competent to act.

SECTION 14. Marriages may be solemnized by a justice of the peace in the county for which he is appointed, when either of the parties resides in the same county; and throughout the State by any minister of the gospel ordained according to the usage of his denomination, who resides within the State and continues to perform the functions of his office; but all marriages shall be solemnized in the city or town in which the person solemnizing them resides, or in which one or both of the persons to be married reside.

SECTION 15. Marriages among the people called Friends or Quakers may be solemnized in the manner heretofore used and practised in their societies.

SECTION 16. Every justice of the peace, minister, and clerk, or keeper of the records of the meeting wherein any marriages among the Friends or Quakers are solemnized, shall make a record of each marriage solemnized before him, together with all facts relating to the marriage required by law