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Band together, chickies, and send this turkey (oops, I mean attorney general)
an email! <grin>
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Message-ID: <37D5912B.EADC45AA(a)midrivers.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 16:26:52 -0600
From: Ann <rgphold(a)midrivers.com>
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Organization: Midrivers Internet
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Subject: [MTGEN-L] [Fwd: Access to MONTANA MARRIAGE APPLICATIONS]
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Did anyone else get this?
Ann
Patricia Marchington wrote:
Hello Genealogists and other Friends,
On Wed., Sept. 1, 1999 the Livingston Enterprise ran a story
from Helena, concerning a draft that has been created for
MT Attorney General Joe Mazurek to sign, which would
close "officially" all access to MT marriage applications.
According to this article, Nancy Sweeney of Helena,
president of the MT Association of Clerks of
District Court (and with Powder River County Attorney
Jeffrey Noble) have requested the ruling by the
MT Attorney General to keep Marriage Applications
private and confidential, so the public will never have
access to them.
According to this article, the only group that seems to
have been consulted for an opinion are the Great Falls Tribune,
Havre Daily News and The Daily Inter Lake (News) in
Kalispell, who all publish the names of those applicants
to be married (rather than those being licensed to be
married).
Also, according to this article, the marriage applications
contain: "the applicants' Social Security numbers,
number of prior marriages, amount of education,
parents' birthplaces, names and ages of minor
children, and whether a previous marriage license
request had been rejected, said Nancy Sweeney".
"Once final, the opinion [this draft signed by the
Attorney General Joe Mazurek] has the force of law
unless overturned by a court or the law is changed,"
says this article.
In other words, they feel that the Marriage Applications
are a private document, while the Marriage Licenses
are public documents. However, it has always been
the case that those persons who don't know, or don't
want to fill anything out on both Marriage Applications
and Marriage Licenses, just leave blanks. So, for those
persons getting married, they already assumed that
all of the documents would have been public records,
with access.
In addition, since this "draft" sounds like an across
the board, no access, then there would not even be
access for me to look at my own Marriage Application
in Park County, MT for my 1975 marriage! And I
would never have been able to find my husband's
grandfather's Marriage Application record in Butte,
MT, because he never went through with the Marriage
License process, so he was never married when
he died in 1940!
We do have access to other states' Marriage Applications
with the Marriage Licenses, but restrictions keep
happening here in Montana. Actually, it will even be
harder for the Clerks of Court to access even the
Marriage Licenses with the Applications being closed,
because most of these documents are together. We
will not be able to look through these records ourselves,
and everyone knows how busy these Clerks are. Another
concern would be, will the Clerks of Court just get
rid of the MT Marriage Applications as well? Or will
they permanently "black/white out" the area of the
Marriage Applications off of the micro film or documents
from the Marriage License?
If you share these concerns, please help us quickly to
send these concerns to the Attorney General Joe Mazurek
in Helena.
However, time doesn't seem to be on our side.
Please respond quickly, and spread the word to all of
the Genealogy Societies and Genealogists in Montana.
Please contact the Attorney General directly via any
means possible. His phone number is 406-444-2026.
His email is:
contact(a)doj.state.mt.us
His mailing address is: The Honorable Joe Mazurek
Attorney General
P O Box 201401
Helena, MT 59620-1401
It is important to send the Attorney General as many messages
from our Genealogy Community and other friends as possible,
and as soon as possible. Thanks for your help.
Patricia Marchington
marching(a)avicom.net
P.S.- *Very important*
PLEASE STATE THAT YOUR ANCESTORS OR
RELATIVES LIVED IN MONTANA!!
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