In a message dated 12/15/2001 2:02:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, Tiggerpunt@aol.com writes: > If any of you are looking for the records of the marriage license of your > ancestors who you thought may have been married in Preston county, but > haven't found them yet, Check out the Garrett Co Md Court house. > Oakland Maryland was and probably still is the marriage capital of the East > > Coast and Preston Co WV. There was not a 3 day waiting period or blood > test > in the early times, With money be in short supply, most weddings in Preston > > Co and the Northern part of WV were performed in Oakland. After 2 years of > > searching, I found my grandparents were married in Oakland in 1927. The > record records the names of the bride and groom, their ages, the towns in > which they lived and the name of the minister. It did not list the parents > > names. > The B&O train went from various stops in preston co to Oakland. Among them > > were Masontown, Kingwood, Tunnelton, Newburg, Rowlesburg and of course > Terra > Alta and Aurora. > Hi, fellow listers! I can testify to this! My maternal grandparents were from Lewis County, WV and after looking for the place of their marriage for five years, I was about to give up! I had seen somewhere that a lot of people went over the state line to Oakland, MD to marry so on a whim I called Garrett County and guess what!? They had my grandparent's marriage recorded there! Since then I have found many of my Lewis County ancestors marrying in Garrett County! My guess is that as long as there was a train a betrothed couple could hop from their town of residence that got them up to Oakland in a day, they took advantage of the no-wait period and no-questions asked procedure! So from now on, when I can't find a marriage taking place in a particular county, I automatically go to Garrett County and most times I get lucky! Also, just as a note, I have been told that often people from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all over Maryland, went to Garrett County to marry. Merry Christmas everyone! Claudia Pell-Salvatore in Northern Kentucky