Wood County, Ohio, Records Manager Brenda Ransom ran across a reference to the 1937 marriage of Teamster boss James Hoffa and Josephine Poszywak in a black binder "tucked away in the basement of the courthouse."
A call to the Probate Court confirmed that the Hoffa's license was on file. The couple apparently came to Wood County because it was known as a "marriage mill town" where requirements were lax.Ms. Ransom said she came across the tidbit of local trivia quite by accident. The binder, apparently kept by a probate clerk in the 1940s, was filled with neatly typed but odd facts about marriage license applicants in Wood County, including people who had famous names like George Washington, those who were remarrying a former spouse, and even "divorced couples married by ministers who object to divorce."
"It's by no means a record of the court. It's just something they did for fun, I assume," Ms. Ransom said. [Link]
