Monday, March 2, 2009

Getting our marriage license





Last weekend we were in Vermont checking out the place where we are getting married. We also stopped by Town Hall to get our marriage license.


I had called Jackie, the town clerk and tax collector (it's a small town!), ahead of time to find out what we needed to bring.

"As long as you know both mothers' maide names and the towns where everyone was born, it shouldn't be a problem," she said.


We showed up armed with passports, driver's licenses and state ID cards. "Which would you prefer?" I asked Jackie. "Neither," she said. "There's no need to see ID."


Albie and I, and his mom and aunt, sat down at a large table in the middle of the room and started the paperwork. Albie, of course, found a bowl of peanuts he started munching on. A nice fireplace was letting out heat behind us... all in all, it was the nicest town hall visit I think I've had in a long time.


When we had some questions, Jackie referred to a 2-inch binder that was about half full.
"Is that everyone who has gotten married here in the last ten years?" I asked, somewhat sarcastic.

"Oh no," Jackie replied. "These are all the weddings, births, deaths and divorces dating back from 1994."


Like I said, it's a small town.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A nice experience - but no ID? How can that be legal? Anyone could get married in your names!

Vickan said...

Not sure... it did seem kind of strange... I guess they don't get a lot of identity theft in VT. Plus, we did have to put our social security numbers down, I think, which is something super secret here in the U.S. (not public record like in Sweden).