This is FYI. I had to talking to one of our charter members about orginal marriage licenses. I will check more into this. <<<<< Okay, now, Jane. Listen carefully. The Black Boxes are connected to the Probate department at the Courthouse, which is under the jurisdiction of the County Clerk. They are called black boxes because they are metal and over the years they turn black. They were, at last count, in the basement of the courthouse. In the earlier days, they were used sorta like a safe deposit box by people who came in to register wills, etc. You have to have a probate number to find whom you are looking for. We have published these records up to about 1900. And have permission to began again, but I am not able to do it, and I have not found anyone willing to do it. You will find everything in those black boxes: sometimes deeds, wills, estate settlements, sometimes marriage records - and even military stuff. Interesting stuff, and sometimes the only place a researcher will find an answer to a question regarding their ancestor. When JoAnn Freeman went in to look for something else, one time, she found there were some original marriage records. They were not put there by the county, but by the persons to whom they belonged. We thought that if we pulled all of those out, that we could do the same thing you are thinking about, send them to people who requested them. Not selling them, but giving them to researchers for $1.00 for copying and SASE. But when Imogene Kennedy, the Staff Genealogist at the Montgomery County Library found out what we were thinking of doing, she said, "No way. Those belong to the county." So, we made Xerox copies, put them in the library [they are there still if they haven't been ask for - check with Barbara][I also have a list of those copied] and returned the original certificates to the county clerk. They thanked them and didn't offer to take our society up on getting them to interested parties. Bear in mind that the black boxes did not contain all of the marriage records - just selected few. As far as I know, the bulk of the original marriage records are still in the courthouse. Where? I don't know, unless they are housed in the Marriage Records Department. Things may have changed by now. It might be a project for someone to contact the county clerk to see if this can be done.>>>> Jane Sanford Keppler Conroe, TX