On Mon, 20 Mar 2017, "M. A. Beldin" <mabeldin@gmail.com> wrote: I remember reading something about having to register a marriage but can no > longer find the source or reason. My great grandparents were from > Pittsfield, but apparently eloped and married in New Lebanon, NY, but then > registered in Pittsfield when they returned to live there. > I haven't tracked down the statutes yet, but one of the joys and pitfalls of research in Massachusetts is that the marriages can be registered three times -- one each for the residence of the bride and groom, and once for the place the event happened -- if all three towns are different. I've also seen out-of-state marriages recorded, mostly when the marriage took place in Vermont. On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 5:39 AM, Deborah HAM <debiham@comcast.net> wrote: > I have noticed this practice as well (deaths in my case). I live in Mass. > but don't know the reason out-of-state events are registered in the local > Mass. town. I figured it was commonplace in all states, so I'll be > interested to see if anyone out there has an explanation. > For deaths, it may be that the double registration was required when a body was transported across jurisdictional lines -- have you looked for a burial transfer permit? I have a possible double death registration in two neighboring counties, and two cases where I have people whose obituaries say they are buried in Massachusetts, but who are also recorded back home in the parish registers in England. One of the registers lists the Massachusetts cemetery and town in the space for the residence of the deceased. (Ordering the certificates for all these, getting cemetery records from Massachusetts, and looking for the burial transfer permits, are on my To Do List.) For other examples of finding death certificates in two states, see Judy G. Russell's posts on The Legal Genealogist from Jan 21 and 22, 2015: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/01/21/death-in-the-wrong-place/ http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/01/22/following-up-on-death/ The state has guidance on the current laws here: http://www.mass.gov/courts/case-legal-res/law-lib/laws-by-subj/about/burial.html including a Death Registration Fact Book <http://fcaemass.org/CFYOD/FactbookR301deathregistration2006.pdf> (PDF). The fact sheet for births outside of Massachusetts is here: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/admin/dmoa/vitals/amendments-corrections-and-delayed-records.html and further guidance for researchers is here: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/admin/dmoa/vitals/data.html The current fact sheets can be useful as a starting point if one wants to walk backwards through the statutes to find the law for the time period of the event in question. Jan Murphy packrat74@gmail.com Moderator Pro Tempore genealogy.stackexchange.com