Deb, Most of my kin got married prior to 18 - a tradition I did not opt for (grin). In WI and most of the other states I researched, a guardian had to give consent for minors prior to marriage. My mother said she had to get a signature prior to her marriage (she was 15), and when checking my parent's marriage certificate, it wasn't there, so it was done prior, probably on the application for marriage. I have been told that those records were normally transcribed into a ledger kept at the county level. I have yet to find such a record in WI, but did find it in KS when the marriage was registered it noted the parents giving consent. In some southern states, a bond had to be posted before a couple could marry, despite age. In those cases, it lists who posted the bond and sometimes relationship was noted. In the case of posting bond, the person did not have to be a guardian, but was usually a relative. Hope this helps. R/S MAK --- GenWisconsin-D-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > ATTACHMENT part 4 message/rfc822 > Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 07:19:15 -0700 > From: "deb Christensen" <deb@dm.net> > To: GenWisconsin-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [GenWisconsin] Age of Majority for Marriage in Mid 19th Century WI > > Hey, folks, > > I just had a thought. > > Would a girl of 14 have been able to get married without her parent's > consent/permission in 1858 or so in Wisconsin? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail � Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/