To answer a query made earlier: Scranton was not incorporated as a city until 1866 and Lackawanna Co. was not formed from part of Luz. Co. until 1878. Any records prior to that date would be in Luz. Co. PA vital records were not centralized until beginning in 1906. There was a short-lived period, 1852-4, in which all BMDs had to be registered, but it was by each county and most of the entries are those who lived near the county seat. A farmer or other person living in the countryside could not afford to take off a full day or two to travel to the court house to register the event. However, these records are on microfilm from the LDS FHCs, and have been transcribed in the NE PA Gen. Soc. newsletter a couple of years ago. The marriage license dockets begin in 1885 by state law, kept by each county, and there is nothing that could have happened to have changed that historical fact. Doug Nicol, Harvey's Lake PA