My family has had the same discussion..."Did they NOT have a ceremony after obtaining the license??" I think that we finally concluded that there must have been two copies of the certificate--one kept on file & one given to the espoused couple, with the member of the clergy who officiated signing ONLY the copy in the couple's possession. A very few, very precise clergy probably went back to the government office to sign that copy as well. Does anyone have an ancestor's copy of a DC marriage license to confirm if there were indeed two copies?? Frank Dunnigan -----Original Message----- From: charles holtzback <choltzb@hotmail.com> To: WashingtonDC-L@rootsweb.com <WashingtonDC-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:58 AM Subject: [WashingtonDC'' ] marriage license >I recently looked up the marriage license of my ggrandparents issued Nov. 1, >1870. The space in which the person who performed the marriage ceremony is >supposed to fill in his name and affiliation was blank. This was also true >of many other certificates on the film. Can anyone tell me why this is so. I >can't believe that so many people obtained marriage licenses and then didn't >have a ceremony. Or did they consider themselves married by obtaining the >license? >Thanks for any help with this. > >Charles > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. > > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >