Just sayin': In 1886, my great granddad, who was only 19, had to have his mother's permission to wed. His father was deceased at the time. The girl he was marrying - my great grandmother - on the other hand, both of whose parents were living at the time was only 16 and she didn't need permission -- at least I saw no indication of that on the 1886 marriage license application. My grandmother was 19 in 1921 and she needed her mother's permission (my great-grandmother had stated that the girl's father was deceased; he was not. They'd been divorced since 1905 and my great-grandmother had remarried). My mom was 20 in 1952 and she needed her mom's permission (my grandfather had been deceased for 20 years by then). In the late nineteenth century, PA had much stricter marriage laws than NJ. Women in PA had to have their parents' (read: father's) permission to marry until they were 21 (I believe).